Pupils in the Pliocene
by BittyBlueEyes
Summary: Sequel to "An Old Friend" - When a school building and its students suddenly vanish, it's up to the Doctor and Rose to get them back home. Until then, it's a fight to survive.
1. Chapter 1

"There she is," the Doctor said enthusiastically as he entered the control room. "Rose Tyler all dressed and ready and… leaving without me? What are you doing? We haven't picked a destination yet."

"No, it's sort of been chosen for us," Rose informed him as she continued putting in coordinates.

"Chosen for us? What does that mean?" he asked as he came up to check the time and place she was entering. She was a very good driver, but it took her a little longer to calculate and put in coordinates. "Who's chosen? No one chooses but us. America 2012? What's-"

"If you stop talking a second, I can explain. We just got a call-"

"A call?" the Doctor said irritably. "How many times do I have to tell you, 'stop answering the phone'?"

"I'll answer it if I want," she declared. "And it was Sarah-Jane. She said something's happened in America that's getting world-wide attention. She said that it looks like something we should check out."

"And just what is this something?"

Rose pushed the monitor in his direction and finished preparing the TARDIS for flight.

"Glen Henry High School goes missing? What do they mean 'missing'?"

"Keep reading," Rose instructed.

"Vanished suddenly. Witnesses say it was just suddenly gone. Patch of soil where school used to be. Police and scientists are baffled. Well, of course they're baffled! Schools don't just vanish," the Doctor spoke to the monitor.

"Not on their own, no. So someone or something did this."

"Glen Henry High School in Ohio. Let's have a look." The Doctor started pulling up maps and figures. "Small town in Ohio, positioned about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland. Oh, very small town. That school has only about 400 students total."

"That's still 400 kids that have gone missing. It's terrifying. Think about all the parents and everyone else in that town. It's like I said, our destination has sort of been chosen for us."

"Seems that it has. Alright, Ohio, here we come."

Rose pulled the lever and the TARDIS took flight. Once the ship materialized, the Doctor stepped outside first and looked around.

"Alright then, which direction?" he asked.

"One block East…" Rose looked around and realized that he didn't need to ask and she certainly didn't need to answer. They just had to look to their left to find what they needed. People were everywhere. There were the common citizens, news reporters and camera men running a line just outside the police tape, and then police and military just inside the tape. It was difficult to maneuver their way to the front, but Rose and the Doctor managed it.

"Excuse me!" the Doctor called out to a police officer, trying to be heard over all the noise. "I've got to get in."

"Sorry, but no one-"

"We've got permission!" Rose shouted over the crowd. She nudged the Doctor who then took out his psychic paper.

The Doctor showed it to the officer and then had a quick peek himself to have a look at their story.

"Dr. John Tyler and Dr. Rose Smith. That's us. Scientists sent to have a look at the site," the Doctor said with a smile. "So we're free to pass, right?"

"Scientists all the way from Britain?" he asked skeptically. "How'd you get here so fast?"

"We were already in the USA to give a lecture. This happened so we were asked to help out," Rose explained. "As you can see, it was signed by our prime minister and your president. We're supposed to be here."

"Yeah, but you're scientists? Doctors? You look a little young to be the experts this claims."

"And you seem to be a little-"

"Doctor," Rose cut him off before he could get himself in trouble. "I assure you that we're qualified. Best in our field. That's why we were asked."

"Fine, but don't you need those suits and masks and stuff?" The officer pointed to the other scientists on the site who were all wearing radiation suits.

"No, we already have a bit of understanding on what's going on here. Perfectly safe," the Doctor informed him. "Can we pass now?"

The officer lifted the police tape and Rose and the Doctor entered the site.

As soon as they were in the guarded area, the Doctor turned to the crowd and shouted. "Hello! Everyone! Is anyone here an eye witness? Did anyone here actually see the moment the school disappeared?"

The officer walked back over to them, looking cross. "I thought you were scientists. You're supposed to be over there doing experiments and stuff, not down here making a scene."

"We want an account of exactly what happened before we get started. There are millions of things to look for. If we can narrow it down a bit, we can finish our analysis much faster," the Doctor explained. He then turned back to the crowd and shouted his questions again.

A friendly TV reporter turned to him, looking anything but friendly at that moment. "We're trying to do our job here and you're ruining our shot and audio. Keep-"

"Oi, we're allowed here," Rose argued. "We're doing our job, too. We're trying to solve the problem. That's a bit more important than dramatizing it to the world, don't you think? Now, is anyone an eye witness? Please?"

"Me," someone finally called out. Rose and the Doctor rushed over to her.

"Thank you. Are you a real eye witness? Did you see exactly what happened?"

"Yes." The woman looked near tears as she spoke to them. "My son was late for school because of dentist appointment. I waited in the car until he walked through the front doors. He didn't make it through the front doors. He was on the stairs leading in and the school just vanished. I mean, it was there and then it just wasn't."

"Oh god," Rose said miserably, realizing just how difficult it was for her. The woman was crying and Rose reached out to rub her arm consolingly.

"I wonder if you could tell me a bit more," the Doctor continued softly. "Was there anything strange that you saw before it vanished? Any flickering lights inside or outside? Anything above, below, or around that looked a bit off?"

The woman shook her head.

"Okay, what about noise?" the Doctor pressed. "Any crackling? A high pitch ring? A low rumble?"

"No, nothing."

"Sensation. Any vibration? Your skin tingle at all? What about movement? Did the school show even a tiny wobble?"

"No. Really, it was just there and then gone."

"Thank you very much. You really have helped. I'm sure you won't believe me, but I promise to bring your son back. I'll make sure we do," the Doctor vowed.

"Alright, Doctor, where do we start?" asked Rose. "There had to be something encompassing the school, but something you can't see? Something completely silent and undetectable?"

"I can believe silent, but not undetectable. It might not have been flashy, but it had to be airtight so it was a solid field. Completely transparent…"

"Well…" the woman said tentatively. The Doctor and Rose forgot she was right behind them and turned to look at her. "I did see sort of a glare. I really didn't think anything of it. It's like the glare on a window, but it was on the brick wall."

"Right against the wall or a little bit in front of the wall?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know. I think it was right on the wall. It's like I said though, I didn't think anything of it so I can't be sure. Does it help any?"

"It does. Alright, Dr. Rose Smith. Let's go do some tests."

The Doctor and Rose walked up to the school ground and stopped to stare. The grass covered lawn looked neat and well maintained, but in the center of the lawn was a huge bald spot. It wasn't just bald though; it was a few inches deeper than its surroundings. It was a perfect cut-out of the school. Filling it, was a few inches of water, water that leaked out into the grass. The water line must have been severed, but it looked like it was turned off now.

"Well, I'm going to say that the energy field was definitely the shape of the school. It's a perfect cut-out," Rose remarked. "So, start with some readings?"

"Yes." The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and began walking a short distance along the edge of the indentation. After a few meters, he stopped and checked his readings. "A few kinds of radiation. Nothing serious. Definitely nothing that will do any harm, but I want exact numbers."

Rose removed some electrical equipment from the bag that the Doctor had requested her to bring, but when she looked up, he looked horrified. She looked at the little groups of scientists inside the school imprint. "What's wrong? They're doing something wrong, aren't they?"

"Hey! Science people! Everyone! Stop what you're doing and come here!" the Doctor called out. When they just looked at him funny, he continued. "I have a discovery! Come here!"

Slowly, everyone wandered over to him.

"Here goes. My Discovery: People are stupid! What is happening here? Have you looked around to see what other people are doing? That's the SDMP! Do you know their job? They're here to clean up the radiation! They're trying to decontaminate the radiation that you're trying to test. I don't even know how you got here. This isn't radioactive. This isn't dangerous radiation. Go away! And you guys with the hoses. You're taking away the water. Water isn't fun to work in, but since it's touched the affected soil, it's holding information that we need. You're ruining tests. How are we supposed to make calculations when half of the information is missing? Only scientists that are studying are allowed here now. Everyone else go away!"

No one made to go anywhere. Most were glaring, but the glares went in every direction.

"Seriously," Rose commanded, "if you're not a scientist, get out of here. If you don't, our radiation discoveries can go right down to those news reporters and explain that you've ruined all our work. We're trying to solve stuff, fix stuff. So get out."

A few of the men could be heard talking about calling their bosses and started walking away.

"Alright," Rose said anxiously, "can we still do this, Doctor?"

"I might be a little harder now," he said in frustration. "Hopefully we can get enough energy from the air. I like soil samples better, but we should still be able to work with air."

The scientists began to scatter, still throwing the Doctor strange looks.

"Taking readings from the air. No spike then," Rose reasoned, putting a piece of the equipment back in the bag. "Light saber?"

"It's not a light saber," the Doctor began, readying a long explanation to correct her.

"I know, it's a scientific tool that tests radiation levels in the air… and it looks like a light saber," she teased. Reaching back into the bag, she took out a different extension to the tablet computer in her hands.

The Doctor took the small handheld device and Rose plugged it into the tablet. The Doctor turned it on and a long beam of green light came out of the handle. He started waving it up and down in long sweeps. He would take a few steps forward and do the sweep again.

"The force is strong with this one." Rose giggled when he glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Hush, you. I'm being brilliant. No poking fun at my genius. Alright, I think that should do." The Doctor turned it off and went to Rose's side. "What've we got?"

"Proof," Rose answered. "Zygma radiation."

The Doctor groaned. "I was sort of hoping I was wrong."

"It could be worse," Rose reminded him. "Much worse. I mean, we should be able to track zygma radiation. Sorry, zygma _energy_ can be traced with the indicator, right?"

"What's zygma radiation?"

Rose and the Doctor whipped around to see a pair of scientists that had obviously been listening in.

"Oh, erm… It's not commonly known yet. Really hard to detect," Rose explained as vaguely as possible. "As you can see here, the levels are sort of high."

Rose showed them their findings. There were graphs and numbers for all the kinds of radiation, from complex zygma to the natural background radiation found all over the planet.

"You get all that information from your light saber thing?" the woman scientist asked incredulously.

Rose was shaking with barely suppressed laughter at the Doctor's indignant expression.

"Light saber? It is not a light saber. I'll have you know-"

"Relax, Doctor," Rose said calmly, "regardless of what you say, it's pretty similar looking. It's easy to see that it's not a toy. They're only curious."

"Okay then, the answer is yes. I get all those readings from my 'light saber'." The Doctor looked around in thought and then turned to Rose. "And yeah, I think there's just enough zygma radiation that we can track the energy. You didn't happen to bring the indicator, did you?"

"I did," she said with a grin.

"Good girl! Come prepared. That's the way," the Doctor praised her.

Rose put away the tablet and 'light saber' and pulled out another handheld gadget. The Doctor thanked her, turned on the gadget, and began walking the perimeter of the stolen school. Rose followed and felt a bit anxious when she realized she was being followed by the two scientists.

"So this zygma radiation, you said it's not commonly known, so who _does_ know about it?" the male scientist asked.

"Erm, Doctor?" Rose asked. "I… I don't know what we can say."

"Tell them whatever," the Doctor said distractedly as he kept his eyes on his work.

"Right…" Rose said nervously. "Well, truthfully, just three people know about it right now. It's sort of a private study."

"Three?" asked the Doctor. "Who's number three?"

"Jack," Rose reminded him.

"Alright. Three."

"Three? That's it?" the male scientist asked dubiously.

"Believe me or don't," Rose said with a shrug. "Doesn't bother me. You saw our readings. Zygma was there and that's what we're studying."

"But what is it?" asked the female scientist.

"Sorry, but it's complicated and you won't believe me anyway," Rose answered.

"I'm a smart woman. Try me," she insisted.

"Doctor?" Rose whined.

"You're right that they won't believe you. Too closed-minded." The Doctor still didn't look up, but directed his next comments to their two followers. "Don't get offended by that either. Everyone's too closed-minded for the concept. It's true. It's fact. But you're not ready for it yet."

"I said, 'try me,'" the woman repeated.

The Doctor waved dismissively.

"And what does that mean?" asked Rose.

"That means, 'Don't talk to me. I'm busy.' Like I said, you can tell them whatever you want. Tell them what it is or tell them to bugger off."

Rose sighed heavily and looked behind her. They were too persistent. They wouldn't stop following unless they got answers.

"Zygma energy is made up of double nexus particles, which haven't been discovered yet. It's a difficult concept just to imagine, extremely hard to discover, and very complex in construct and manipulation. In a double nexus particle, one nucleus is in the material world while the mirror nucleus exists outside of time and space. Something crazy happened here that manipulated those particles, creating the zygma energy that caused this school to vanish."

"Outside of time and space?" the man said incredulously.

"Told you that you wouldn't believe it. There it is though. So, erm… been nice talking?" Rose had hoped that dismissal was enough, but they didn't stop following.

"Look, I'm going to pretend like I believe you for a second. Are you saying that zygma energy can switch from the nucleus on the material side to that side outside of space and time?"

"Yes."

"So where is the school now?"

"We don't know yet," answered Rose. "That's what he's trying to figure out."

"Well, is it outside of time and space? Like a void?"

"No, whatever this energy did, it spit it back out into N-space, or the material world, whatever you want to call it. We're just not sure where. Once we track it, we can work on reversing the transfer."

"You realize how utterly ridiculous this sounds, don't you?" asked the man.

"Yep. Like I said, believe it or don't. It doesn't hurt my feelings."

The man turned and walked away but the woman still followed. "If you think you can reverse what happened are you saying that you can manipulate this energy? You can teleport things?"

"I think that this conversation might be getting a little too deep," Rose said nervously.

"No, it's not," the Doctor answered. "Excellent explanations, by the way. Yes, we can transport things. Not just around N-space, but through time. My readings are finished and… Rose, we've got to go…"

The urgency in the Doctor's last sentence worried Rose. "Oh no, where are they?"

"Wait, if this is real, if you can really teleport things, then how do I know you didn't do this in the first place? You said there are only three people that know about this."

"I said there are only three people who know _right now_. I also told you that people aren't ready for this _yet,_" Rose reminded her. "This stuff doesn't get discovered until the 51st century. Someone did something here and we came to figure it out and fix it."

"Rose, we've really got to get going," the Doctor said again.

"Where and when?" she worried.

"Right here, but in the Cenozoic Era, more specific the Pliocene Enoch… about 3.823 million years ago. Not exactly the friendliest time in history."

"You've got exact coordinates, right?"

"Of course I've got coordinates. What do you think I was doing?"

"Well, you gave an estimated time. When do you ever give estimations? Doesn't matter. Let's go." Rose readjusted the bag on her shoulder and started off. The Doctor stayed back for a minute.

"Okay. You don't believe us," he told the woman scientist. "Or, I don't know, maybe you have this crazy idea that we might be what we claim. Whatever you think, I want you to try to do me a favor. I'm going to give this place time to clear out. Five days. I'll have that school right where it belongs with everyone still inside, in five days. The favor I ask is that you make sure no one is on site. Better yet, I'll shoot for 8:00 PM so it should be cleared out. I just ask that you make sure. I don't want anyone killed when the school shows up on top of them. Anyway, wish me luck!"

The Doctor waved and ran off with Rose.

* * *

**I'm a little nervous about posting this story because it's not like my others. This is for my first prompt and it was pretty crazy! It was fun to write, but it feels different from all of my other stuff. I really hope you like it. The crazy prompt?**

LoveMeTennant - "You said your running out of ideas and it scares me! I love your stories! You said you want ideas so how about this - a high school goes to the prehistoric times and Rose and the Doctor have to save them. I know it's crazy, but I thought it could be fun. If you don't want to that's ok. Just don't stop writing!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, we're here," the Doctor announced, lacking his usual enthusiasm. He was looking down at the indicator, back up at the monitor, and then down at a notebook he'd grabbed.

"Okay… so are we going then?" asked Rose.

"No, don't go outside yet. Just take a look out the window. The school should be right in front of us."

"Yep," Rose affirmed.

"Really?" the Doctor said hopefully.

"You mean you weren't expecting that? I thought you had the coordinates."

She looked upset with him and he felt a mix of apologetic and defensive. He wasn't sure which he should feel more. "I wasn't able to take radiation samples from the soil. I had to take readings from the air. They're good, very good readings, but I had to do a lot of extra calculations to try and get us to the right time."

"And if we got the wrong time? What? We'd go back empty-handed?" she asked irritably.

"No, of course not. We'd just keep trying until we got it right."

"We can't do that. Crossing our own timelines. Not good," she reminded him.

"Of course I know it's not good. Where did you learn it's not good? From me. So you know I know it's not good. We can't just let hundreds of kids die though. If I'm careful, I can manage to cross my own timeline okay sometimes. This would have be one of those times, but hopefully we won't have to play with that. Now let me have a look…" The Doctor had been looking at the view screen while he talked and finally saw what he wanted. "Looks like I've got pretty good timing, too. Hundreds of healthy human hearts in that building. Let's go have a look."

The Doctor walked over to meet her at the door but she stopped him before they went out. She stroked his cheek and gave him a quick kiss. Things were likely to get stressful so she couldn't let them walk into it on bad terms. All the frustration between them was lost and they headed out of the TARDIS toward the two-story brick school building.

It looked like the school miraculously found a clearing to land in. They were located in a forest, but the trees looked nicely spaced apart in that area. Rose's eyes widened when she looked off to her left. There was an enormous creature with shaggy fur pulling large amounts of leaves off of one of the trees.

"Is that…? What is that?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"Oh come on, how many times have we visited natural history museums? You tell me what it is," the Doctor challenged.

"We go to natural history museums on other planets, too. You can't expect me to remember everything," she argued.

"Well, have a look at it and take a guess."

"It's… a sloth? I mean, is that what it's called? A ground sloth? Or was that on New Earth? Borremi?"

The Doctor laughed. "No, you got it right the first time. Ground sloth. About 11 feet tall and 750lbs, I'd say."

They arrived at the door and the Doctor knocked politely.

"They're glass doors and it's a public building. You walk right in, love." Rose chuckled and opened the door for him.

They walked in and they saw a small gathering of students and a few staff members sitting in the main hallway, leaning up against the built-in lockers.

"Hello!" the Doctor greeted. "Help has arrived. Well, _we_ have arrived and intend to help. That's the same thing, isn't it?"

"Who are you?" asked one of the students. Everyone that had been sitting were getting to their feet, surprised to see new people.

"I'm Rose and this is the Doctor. We had a look at your empty school yard and thought we'd pay you a visit. We hope to help you get home."

"Are you serious?" another student asked hopefully. "We could actually get home?"

"Yes, that's the plan," the Doctor affirmed. "I'm not saying that I can figure it out in a day; it'll take a little time, but yes, we'll definitely get you home. But first, we need to figure out how things are going here. How long have you been here?"

"Six days," answered one of the girls.

"Six days?" Rose frowned and looked over at the Doctor. "We're later than you thought, aren't we?"

"Yes, we definitely are…" The Doctor looked concerned when he asked his next question. "How's health? Are there any that are very ill or weak? Or worse… have there been any fatalities?"

"I think a lot of people are having stomach aches and we're really thirsty, but I don't think anyone's close to dying yet or anything."

Rose sighed in relief. "So how many are here?"

"Not a clue," one student said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't think anyone knows."

"Okay, time for a meeting then. How many are outside the school right now?" the Doctor inquired.

Everyone looked at one another and shook their heads.

"You're sitting at the front door and have no idea how many went out?" he asked.

They shook their heads again and the Doctor sighed.

"Rose, would you mind calling a meeting?"

"Sure. How far should I spread it?"

"Erm… I don't think they'd even dare to go a kilometer, but set it for one and a half kilometers just in case."

Rose left the school and the Doctor was about to exit, too, but one of the staff members called out to him.

"Wait, where are you going?!"

"I'm having a look outside for a minute. It'll take a couple minutes for the adventurers to return. The meeting starts when they get back." The Doctor went outside and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Just a minute later, he stopped scanning to listen to Rose's announcement.

"Attention Glen Henry High School. Please report to the school gymnasium at this time. I repeat, please report to the school gymnasium at this time. Thank you."

Rose raced up to him just a minute later with a wide grin. "Bet I scared them half to death."

"I bet the adventurers aren't just _coming_ back. They're likely _running_ back," he replied, sharing a smile of his own.

"All good adventurers need a bit of running."

Just a few minutes later, a pack of students came running around the corner, but stopped suddenly when they caught sight of the Doctor and Rose.

"The adventurers!" the Doctor said excitedly. "You are already my favorites. Now, we called a meeting, but we don't actually know where the gymnasium is. Think you could lead the way?"

"Who are you?" asked the man in the group. He looked to be in about his early 40s.

"I'd like to ask you the same. And I'm not just saying that," said the Doctor, "but we've got a meeting to attend. We didn't want to start without you, but I'm sure people in there are already getting impatient."

When they got to the gym, the Doctor and Rose stopped in the doorway to have a look around. It was rather small compared to some gyms. There was just enough room to accommodate the basketball court and bleachers. The bleachers were interesting in setup. The seating appeared like stairs, as with all bleachers, but when they were not in use, they could be pushed against the wall, bench on top of bench. Two of the four sets were not in use, folded in a stack against the walls, which worried the Doctor. He then turned his attention to the stage across from him. Apparently, this room was also used for concerts and theater. The two open bleachers were across from each other and near the stage rather than the door. He then assumed that's where they wanted him.

The Doctor and Rose made their way to center stage and looked around at everyone.

"Rose, how many students did I say attend this school?" the Doctor quietly asked her.

"About 400," Rose answered, sharing the Doctor's concern. "There's nowhere near 400 here."

"Yes, I see that…" The Doctor turned his attention to the crowd and talked loudly so that everyone could hear him. "Hello! I guess I should start by saying that we're here to help. Can everyone hear me alright?"

The Doctor paused and got the idea from the looks on some of their faces that he was not heard clearly.

"Okay, now?" he spoke louder. "Okay, can everyone hear me well?"

Rose had been nudging the Doctor in the side and a more insistent one finally grabbed his attention. The Doctor looked down to see that Rose was offering him a handheld device.

"Om-Com! Look at you being all clever," he praised. He adjusted the settings and held it up to his mouth. When he spoke, his voice came out through the school's loud speakers. "There, I'm sure everyone can hear me now."

Everyone looked around at the speakers in surprise. They'd been without electricity for days.

"So, I'm sure you've got many questions, but I have a few vital ones myself so those come first. I'd like about four or five of you to act as representatives and come on up to the stage, please."

Everyone looked around but no one moved except one man at the bottom front of the bleachers. He adjusted his oxford shirt and walked up the stairs to the stage.

"I'm Principal Robert Long, I represent this school," he introduced himself.

"Oh, good. Good. First question, a question that has me quite terrified: where is everyone? There should be over 400 people here. Where are they?"

"No, not 400. The freshman and sophomore classes were on a field trip," the principal explained.

"Oh thank god," Rose sighed in relief.

"Better. That's much, much better," the Doctor agreed. "Okay, not 400, how many people are here then?"

"An exact number?" the principal asked. "I'm really not sure."

"Not sure?" the Doctor said in stunned disbelief. "You've been here for days and never thought to take a count? How do you know that no one's missing then? How do you handle rations? How-? Never mind. Hold on. Secretary! Is the school secretary here? Wherever you are, please stand up."

A woman in the crowd stood up and the Doctor quickly asked her the same thing. "How many people here? What was the attendance and how many staff are here?"

She shook her head to show she didn't know either.

"Fine, we'll figure that out in a bit," the Doctor said in frustration. "Okay, Mr. Long, how about rations? What do your supplies look like? How much packaged food? How much dried food? How much water?"

"I'm really not sure at this point. I never actually took inventory myself. I was-"

"Strike two," said the Doctor. "What about the terrain? What do things look like out there? I'm assuming you found water. What kind of water source is it?"

"I'm not sure exactly. I think they said it was a lake. They usually go off in that direction." The principal pointed in the direction of the outside wall.

"Strike three. You're out," he said crossly. He pointed at the open space on the bleachers, directing the principal there.

"What is that supposed to mean?" the principal asked heatedly.

"It means you no longer represent this school. You're supposed to be the leader and you're utterly failing. You have no idea what's going on and are not keeping any order here. You have officially been relieved of duty."

"Are you trying to fire me?"

"Not trying. I just did. And actually, you're not principal yet anyway. You're not hired until three million years from now. Just go sit down. Everyone else! I need representatives. Four or five, please."

Rose beckoned for the Om-Com, and the Doctor handed it over.

"Here we go," she said. "Who here works in the kitchen? Where are the dinner ladies? Look, when I call out, stand up and raise your hand. And wait, I want the dinner lady in charge of ordering food deliveries."

One woman stood up and Rose motioned for her to come up to the stage.

"Okay, now the adventurers! Anyone who has ventured outside to explore please stand up."

Two men, six boys, and one girl stood up and they were all grouped together on the bleachers.

"You're brilliant, all of you. I truly admire each of you, but if you could, do you think you can point out someone you think of as a leader? Who among you are the ones you absolutely could not do without?"

"Troy!" one of the boys in the group called out. A couple in the group started nudging one boy forward. He looked a bit unsure about going up, but still made his way to the stage.

"Okay, there's one. What about you Mr. Teacher that we met outside? Think you could help us out a bit?"

The man walked down from his spot. The boy called Troy stepped up on the stage and the Doctor went over to him.

"Alright. You are now officially the leading representative of this school. Your first task is to pick one more person from the adventurers. Who has explored the most or has special skills that can be used for survival?" the Doctor asked him.

"We really stick together when we go out. I don't think anyone knows more than the rest. Jake's a hunter. We don't have any weapons, but if we did, I'd say him."

The Doctor turned to Rose and gave her the name. Rose called out for Jake and told everyone else that they could sit back down. When everyone was on the stage, the private meeting began.

"First and foremost," started the Doctor, "food and drink. Ms. Dinner Lady, what do things look like?"

"Not good." She shook her head sadly. "It was delivery day and the truck didn't arrive before we ended up here. We were already lower on food than we'd like. Now that we're here… I tried to portion things. I really did, but people were scared and got aggressive. Some kids broke into the kitchen and snack counter and started taking stuff."

"And no one stopped them?" Rose asked angrily.

"We tried," said Jake. "Actually, I think too many people tried to stop them. It was so crowded that it was hard to figure out which ones were taking things and which ones were stopping people. Then, when those people looked around and saw how much food had been taken, they started taking some themselves so that they could manage their own conservation. They didn't want to starve faster because things weren't fairly divided."

"And they took all the wrong things," the cook said in dismay. "They took all the nonperishables – the sealed bags of cookies, chips, pudding cups, and things like that. In the raid, they smashed all the fresh fruit we had. I wanted to use that first so it didn't go bad. The refrigerators and freezers don't work, so I thought we'd go through frozen vegetables next. We have lots of meat and fried potatoes, but nothing to cook them with so I wouldn't dream of using them now. We've now gone through most of the canned fruits and vegetables. We've run out very quickly."

"You've done wonderfully," the teacher told her. "We haven't gotten much to eat, but enough to get by so far. You've done a good job."

"What about water? How's that been working?" asked the Doctor.

"After the raid, I locked all the water in my classroom," the teacher explained. "Instead of milk, the children are offered the ability to buy bottled water with their lunch. It costs a lot more so few ever do. Still, we have stocks of it. _Had_ stocks of it. I portioned it out for two small cups a day. We've only had two tiny meals a day and they would come to my room after that and I'd measure the water out. We ran out. We didn't have any bottled water yesterday or today."

"You didn't tell him the worst part yet," Troy remarked. "Several people around here have warned others not to drink pop, but they broke into the vending machine and started taking it anyway."

"Pop? People are drinking that right now?!" the Doctor said in outrage. He took the Om-Com from Rose and turned to the crowd. "Who here have got fizzy drinks?! Who's got carbonated beverages?! Do not drink them! In fact, right now, I want you to take any bottle you have with you and put it in the center of the room! No pop! You're at risk of death by dehydration and you're drinking pop! Your body is already struggling with the other complex sugars you're taking in and you're adding more. Sugars don't break down without water. Then there's the caffeine! It's a diuretic! It increases heart rate and cardiac output. An increased cardiac output sends more blood to the kidneys, causing an increased amount of urine excretion, leading to the dehydration. It's hurting you, not helping you!"

The Doctor turned back to his small group.

"You know, that's kind of an interesting question," said Rose. "Urine excretion. Where do you… go?"

"Some of the trees behind the school," answered Troy. "Not much privacy, but we've gotten used to that already."

"Okay, bathroom outside, out of water, nearly out of food," the Doctor reviewed.

"You can just say 'out of food,'" the cook said quietly. "I haven't told anyone yet, but we only have a can of peaches left. It's a huge can, but I still estimate only half a slice for everyone."

"But that's what we're working on," said Troy. "We were bringing back a thing of water when you called for us. We thought we'd boil some for drinking, then bring back some more so she could cook some pasta or something."

"We're trying to figure out how to get more food, too," said Jake. "Troy's found some plants we can eat and we're trying to figure out how to trap some animals. The problem here is that they're so big, we don't know what to trap and how to go about it."

"Plants?" asked Rose. "Are you sure they're edible? Sure they're not poisonous?"

"Oh, boy scout here found some things we can eat," Jake said as he nudged Troy.

"Oh, a boy scout!" the Doctor said excitedly. "A camper. I saw your fire pit design outside. Very good. Very, very good. Perfect for cooking over. And you're familiar with edible plants, too?"

"Some. My dad's an Eagle Scout and is always taking me camping. When we're out, he tries showing me all sorts of survival stuff. I was pretty sick of it. I wanted to drop out of scouts years ago, but I knew how disappointed he'd be," Troy explained.

"I was one of those people that poked fun at boy scouts," Jake admitted. "You'll never catch me doing that again."

"Okay, looks like we've got all the big questions asked, so where do we start, Doctor?" asked Rose.

"Okay, we start with assignments. Jake and Troy, do you think your group can finish bringing up the water without Mr. Teacher? By the way, what are you carrying the water in?"

"Well… We didn't really have anything the size we were looking for, so we used the janitor's mop bucket. It sounds gross, but we rinsed it out well and we boil the water," said Jake. "And, yeah, we can still carry it up."

"Good. That's fine. Use what you've got. You can go about that now. Ms. Dinner Lady, if you could ready some pots for when the adventurers come back, I'd like it if you could cook some pasta or rice."

The cook nodded and went off with her assignment, too.

"And, Mr. Teacher, if-"

"Donovan," the teacher corrected.

"Mr. Donovan or just Donovan?" asked the Doctor.

"Just Donovan."

"Okay, Donovan, I'm hoping you'll accept the job of registering everyone here. Everyone means students and staff. I'd like a list with everyone's first and last name and once their name is written down, they get a name tag. Think you can do that for me?"

"Yes, I'll go get what I need now. First though… who are you two?"

"I'm Rose and he's the Doctor," Rose introduced them.

"Yes, but where are you from? Who sent you?" Donovan continued.

"No one sent us. We saw your disappearance in the news, had a look about, and thought we could help," she answered. "Anyway, Doctor, want to make your announcement?"

"Yes, and then you can select a couple people for yourself because you've got your own assignment."

"I figured that."

The Doctor addressed the crowd again and explained how they were going to be registered. He gave them the additional warning that if they didn't have a name tag, they didn't get food. Things were going to change. There would be order and participation.

* * *

**Thank you so much for your supportive reviews!**


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor had given Rose her own assignment and, as instructed, she selected a few people to help. She wasn't really selective. She just took the first three people that registered themselves and received their name tags – two boys and one girl. Rose led the way to the front door and paused when she saw that they'd stopped just before stepping outside.

"There's no more of that," Rose insisted. "Everyone helps out. That means going outside. Now, I need a hand. Simple job. Come on."

With a little reluctance, they followed after her.

"Where are we going?" asked one of the boys. Rose turned around to have a look at him and saw that his name was Tim. A quick look at the others showed her that she brought a Rachel and a Trent.

"Erm, our science box," Rose answered, unsure what else to call it. "It's not far."

"A science box? Is that what you guys are? Scientists?" asked Rachel.

"Yeah," Rose agreed. They were sort of, among other things.

"Oh my god, it's a mammoth!" Tim cried. All three students moved far to Rose's left but she kept on walking. The giant creature was a fair distance away and didn't seem interested in them at all.

"I hate to be one of those people who correct others all the time, but that's a mastodon. The reason for the correction is that if the Doctor heard that, he'd-" Rose stopped speaking when she saw the Doctor appear from the other side of the tree they were passing.

"If the Doctor heard what?" he inquired.

Rose sighed. "If the Doctor heard an animal misidentification."

"What misidentification?"

"Don't worry, it's been corrected. That's a mastodon, not a mammoth," Rose explained.

"Of course that's not a mammoth. It's got shorter legs and a flatter head. Mammoths also have the fatty lump on their back. Mammoths do better in more open areas because they graze like elephants. It's not likely that you'd find any in a forest. Mastodons prefer twigs, branches, and leaves so this is a good environment for them. Either way, you don't need to get so scared. They're herbivores. Don't get really close, but you don't need to run away. Vegetarians," the Doctor informed them.

"Thanks, love, but we'd have been alright without the full lesson," Rose teased.

"But what can you learn from the name alone? Although the scientific name-"

"We're on assignment. Think we could go over that some other time?"

"Oh, right. I've got my own work. Carry on." The Doctor readjusted his scientific equipment and headed back toward the school.

"Yeah, that's what the Doctor would do if he heard something identified incorrectly," Rose explained to her assistants.

"Why do you always refer to him as 'the Doctor'?" asked Rachel. "Is he above you or something? You're like his assistant?"

"No, we're on equal footing. It's true that he's far more knowledgeable, but we work together. No rank. As for calling him 'the Doctor' that's just what he's called. No first name. No last name. Just 'the Doctor'."

"What about you?" asked Trent.

"I'm Rose."

"Just Rose?" asked Tim.

"What more do you need?" She shrugged. "If you call 'Rose', I'll answer. How about a question from me now? Freshmen and Sophomores – what years are those?"

"9th and 10th grade," answered Rachel.

"So the ones that are left are…?"

"Juniors and Seniors, 11th and 12th grade," Rachel explained.

"What about year 13?" asked Rose. "Oh, never mind. The Doctor told me before. You call 1st year something else and then 2nd year you call 1st grade. Sorry, as you can see, I'm not from around here. Well, no one's from around _here_, but you know what I mean."

"So where are you from?" asked Trent.

"Originally, London."

"So where are you from now?" he pressed.

"There," Rose answered while pointing straight ahead.

The TARDIS came into view and Rose's three assistants looked at it in confusion.

"This is the science box," Rose declared. "Or lab? I guess 'lab' sounds better than 'box'. I'm going to ask you to stay out here and I'll be out in just a few minutes."

"That's your lab?" Tim asked dubiously. "That's all you brought with you?"

"Believe me, it'll surprise you. Now, just a few minutes."

Rose moved about the TARDIS, retrieving what she needed and stepped outside a few minutes later with a large jug of water.

"Okay, this is our job," she explained. "We're taking drinking water up to the school. It's eight liters, so it's a bit heavy. I've got two more I'm bringing out so I don't know how you want to do it. You can take them individually or make a line and pass it down between you, or wait for each other and take them all back at once. Your choice. I'll go get the other jugs."

"Wait." Trent stopped her. "You've got all that water in that little box?"

"We like to be prepared," Rose answered. "I'll be back."

The three students waited together for all the jugs before they started back. Rose went back in for one more that she'd carry back herself. She was only a short distance behind them so when they stopped at the doors, uncertain of what to do with it, they waited for her.

"Alright," said Rose, "do any of you know where Donovan's room is? Or where he is?"

"Donovan?" asked Trent.

"The teacher that was in charge of the water," Rose clarified.

"Mr. Brunner. Room 23," answered Tim.

As expected, the door was unlocked when they got there. With no water to give the last two days, locking the door wasn't necessary. Tim and Trent were dismissed and Rachel was sent to find Donovan. If he was busy, she was supposed to bring the keys. A few minutes later, Donovan showed up himself. When he entered the room, his eyes widened.

"Water? Drinking water? Real drinking water?" He looked so relieved and emotional that Rose felt it, too. His eyes were misting and he shook his head to regain his composure. "We're going to have to do some math though and figure out rations. How much is here? Do you know how much longer we'll be here?"

"32 liters. Oh, but Americans prefer gallons, don't they? Erm… I think that's between 8 and 9 gallons. As for how long we'll be here, I really don't know. My guess is just a few days, not more than a week. Don't ration by days. This is just for this evening. Is everyone registered? Do you have a count?"

"This water is just for this evening? You can do this twice a day?" he asked hopefully.

"Yep. We brought a lot more than you'd expect. Anyway, the count?" she requested again.

"Oh, yes. No one was allowed to leave the gym until they registered, with exception of the ones you call the adventurers. I got them when they came back. We've got 263 including every staff member."

"Perfect. Do you have a math teacher around here? I was thinking he or she could do some portions figures. I saw the cooks were outside getting ready to make the pasta."

"Yes, we've got a couple math teachers. I'm sure they'd be happy to help. Do you want me to go find them?" he offered.

"No, it'll be easy to catch them when they come through here. After going without water for so long, I want everyone here now. I'm going to make another announcement in just a moment. Think you can figure out some water allowances while I do that?"

"Yes, but first, I wanted to talk to you about one of the students. He has epilepsy and his seizures have been getting progressively worse. I'd like to give him extra water because I think it would help. I just want to make sure that's alright. I know I'll be second-guessed in that decision, so I'd like your opinion."

"Definitely. Give him double. In fact, I think I'd like to talk to other people with medical problems. I'll have them step to the side. But first, I want to make some copies of that list. I want several copies. We're going to put a mark next to the person's name for each time they get water and a different mark for when they receive food. I'll have one sheet for morning and one for evening. I don't want anyone sneaking back in line for extras."

Rose took a brief look for the Doctor when she exited the school, but didn't see him anywhere. She peeked around one side of the building, just in case, but when she still didn't see him, she headed for the TARDIS. He wasn't there either, but she hadn't expected him to be. She was just there to make some copies and then an announcement.

She used the TARDIS to call out again. She instructed that they form an orderly line outside Mr. Brunner's room and wait patiently for her return. She then requested that anyone with medical needs step to the side to speak with her. Once finished, she walked back to the school. Before entering, she walked over to see the cooks.

The Doctor had praised Troy for his cooking fire and it was worthy of praise. He and a few others dug a trench and filled it with dry wood. Once the fire was lit, they situated a shelf from the large kitchen oven on top of it, making a perfect grill. On top of the grill now, were a few large pots filled with boiling water. The cooks were just measuring out pasta to put in.

"You two are amazing," Rose told them. "Since you're going to miss the water distribution, I thought I'd bring you some now. Thank you very much for all you're doing."

"No, thank you for all _you're_ doing," the head cook insisted as she took the water bottle from Rose. "We're not sure how to go about serving it though. We're not sure how many people there are."

"263, but I'm going to have a couple of math teachers over here to figure out how much should be served to each. You just get it ready and relax a bit before we serve it up."

Rose waved and went back to Donovan's room. It was really hard to picture 263 people, but when you saw them single-file wrapped around the hallways, you realized just how large that number really was. She passed them all and when she got to the front of the queue, she handed the copies of the list of names to Donovan. He attached the list to his clipboard and hired the first two people in line to assist him with the distribution process.

Donovan, it turned out, was the chemistry teacher. One of the reasons he took the water to his classroom was because he wanted to measure it out perfectly. They used a beaker to measure it and each person drank directly from the beaker. At one point, they had probably all been disgusted by the idea of drinking after everyone else in school, but at this time, they were just too relieved with getting water to care. Today, they got 4ozs. each, their biggest allowance by far.

Rose stood on the other side of Donovan to wait for anyone in need of medical care. When Rose saw one boy with double the water allowance, she wasn't surprised to see him walk over to her. Both math teachers went to see Rose when Donovan sent them over and she immediately asked them to assist the cooks. A small group was forming around her. As the line was dwindling, she saw one girl stop and look at her. She looked conflicted.

"You alright?" asked Rose. "You need some help?"

The girl gave a slight shake of her head, looked down, and started walking away.

"You sure?" Rose called out.

"No, I'm fine," she forced a smile and walked away.

Rose was concerned, but wasn't sure that she should push the matter. She might keep an eye on her though.

Rose assembled her group and went off in search of the Doctor. She walked almost all the way around the building and decided it was best to call out for him. It took several calls before she got a reply. She found him a further distance from the school than she'd expected and he was walking around, just searching the ground.

"Lose something?" she asked.

"No and yes," he replied. "I've got all kinds of readings, but I don't just want readings. I want to find the thing that did this to the school. I'm hoping to reverse exactly what happened and I also want to figure out who was responsible. I haven't got a clue. Literally. I'm looking for clues and I have found any. Maybe-"

The Doctor finally looked up and saw the group with her. He looked at them quizzically, but then shrugged off his surprise.

"Hello," he greeted. "So how are things going at the school? I heard your water announcement."

"We brought 32 liters of water which gives them 4oz servings. We'll do that twice a day. The roster is finished. There are 263 people total, not including us, of course. We're using the list of names to mark when someone gets something to eat and when they get water. The pasta should be ready in a minute, if it's not already done, and the mathematicians are figuring out servings."

"Brilliant!" the Doctor said enthusiastically. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Amazing as always. Sounds like you've got everything under control… So who are these people?"

"If you heard my message, you know that I asked for people with medical problems to come see me. This is the group," she explained.

"Ah, yes. In need of a Doctor. That's me. What are the problems?" he inquired.

"First, this is Alex. He has epilepsy and his seizures are bad and getting worse. We're pretty concerned."

"Rightfully so. Hello, Alex. I'm assuming you need medication and haven't had some for a few days, right?" When Alex nodded, the Doctor continued, "What kind of epilepsy?"

"Juvenile Myoclonic," he answered.

"They say your seizures are getting worse. More myoclonic – just a jerk of a leg or an arm here or there? Absence seizure? Well, you can't tell those on your own, but have other people noticed you staring out and being unresponsive? Any tonic-clonic?"

"I've been having more myoclonic, but I've had two full-blown tonic-clonic seizures. Unconscious, flailing on the floor. Sort of freaking people out," he explained.

"We could medicate him, but easier just to cure him," the Doctor told Rose. "Just mix up a GSTVI. The recipe's in the green file cabinet."

"Cure?" asked Alex.

"GSTVI," Rose acknowledged. "Doesn't involve heating things, does it? Those make me anxious."

"Just mixing. Easy-peasy."

"Alright. GSTVI. Remember that, Alex. GSTVI."

"Next?" The Doctor was back to searching and the group followed.

"Possible fractured wrist," said Rose.

"Give something for accelerated healing and pain relief. Scan it. If there's a small fracture, use the sonic setting 352b. If it's a complete break, let me know and I'll take care of it." The Doctor reached in his pocket for his sonic screwdriver and handed it to Rose. Rose didn't need to be reminded of that setting. She knew it all too well.

"Okay, this boy's got a cast on his leg. He said it was supposed to be removed four days ago."

"Scan it. If it's good, use setting 819."

"This girl's got a nasty staph infection."

"Clean it. Sunji'iro oil. Bandage."

"Alright," Rose said, perking back up. "We'll leave you to your search then."

"Wait." The Doctor looked up. "There's more people than that."

"Don't worry. I can handle the others," Rose assured him.

"No, but I want to know," the Doctor pouted. "I've been bored out here. You're giving me something fun. I'm the Doctor. They want a Doctor."

"No, the rest of them want a nurse."

"What does that mean?"

"Women stuff."

"What women stuff? I know women. I can help women, too," he protested.

"Okay, you grab the pads and tampons then. They're tired of using fluff from bulrushes. Or cattails? I think they call them cattails here. Anyway, you want to take care of women stuff while I treat the rest?"

The Doctor's nose scrunched in disgust. "Sorry, but I'm a bit busy. I'll let you handle the women stuff."

"That's what I thought," Rose chuckled.

She led the group back toward the school then up in the direction of the TARDIS.

"What's that?" asked the boy with the cast.

"That's the lab," Rose announced. "Now I know things are supposed to go in the order of importance, but I think I'm going to go with easiest to hardest. So, if you'll just hold on a minute, I'll be right back."

She came out first with packages of pads and a boxes of tampons and told the girls to spread the word. If more were needed, she had more. She stopped them before they got too far and ran back in to retrieve an enormous pack of toilet paper for everyone. She and the Doctor hated going out to buy personal or household necessities, so when they did, they bought enough so that they wouldn't have to do it again for another year or so.

Everyone was staring in disbelief at how much she was bringing out, but Rose hadn't noticed their expressions. She came out next to treat the staph infection and sent the girl on her way. She brought out a tablet computer. As she moved it down the boy's cast, an x-ray image moved on the screen. It would inform her of any abnormalities, but there were none. She asked Alex to hold the tablet for her and she took out the sonic screwdriver. When she pointed it at the boy's leg, he jumped back.

"What is that thing?" he worried. "What's it do?"

"Oh, it's just a sonic device," she explained. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just so used to it, that I forget it looks kind of threatening to others. Doesn't hurt. Just sonic waves. If the sonic waves vibrate at the right frequency it can affect things in all sort of ways. Setting 819 will crack the cast open but won't do a thing to you."

Rose held it up and let it buzz. Just to prove her point, she held it to her skin and pressed the button again.

"Trust me now?" she asked.

The boy still look wary, but he nodded. Rose drew a line down the cast with the sonic screwdriver, and the cast cracked open neatly. Together, they pulled it off. The boy stared at the sonic screwdriver in confusion and looked up at the TARDIS the same way. After a few moments, he finally turned and went back in the school.

Rose turned to the last two, Alex and the girl with the injured wrist, and they were staring down at the tablet she'd entrusted to Alex. She hadn't thought to turn it off and they had their hands beneath it, watching how the bones in their hands moved on the screen.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"Where did you get this kind of technology?" Alex inquired. "This is amazing. And that sonic thing? That Doctor made it sound like it could heal a broken bone, too."

"It can. Let's see if that's necessary though." Rose took back the tablet and held it over the girl's injured wrist. A tiny red spot flashed. Rose paused on that image and zoomed in. "Tiny, hairline fracture. Tiny, but still painful, I'm sure."

Rose set the sonic and the girl showed no fear when Rose aimed it at the injured location. In fact, she looked excited. When Rose was finished, they scanned her wrist again and the image showed no more injury.

"It didn't hurt?" asked Alex.

"Not at all. That's so awesome!"

"Oh, before you go…" Rose reached in her pocket and took out two tiny bottles. "The Doctor ordered these for accelerated healing and pain relief. The bone might be fixed, but there's still inflammation and swelling around it."

Rose used a tiny dropper to put a little of each on the girl's tongue. When finished with that, she gave permission for her to leave.

"Now, Alex. I'm sorry I've made you wait so long, but I'm going to ask you to wait a little longer. I don't have what you need on hand. I've got to put it together. I can do it, but it'll take me a little bit. Fifteen minutes maybe?"

"He said it's easier to cure me than medicate me. Do you guys mean you can actually cure epilepsy? I mean, it's supposed to be incurable." He sounded both hopeful and skeptical.

"From what I've seen, nothing's incurable. Incurable just means no one has found the cure _yet_. Well… The common cold is something else. More trouble than it's worth trying to cure that."

"So you can cure me? Epilepsy gone for good? In fifteen minutes it will just be gone? Never have to deal with it again?"

"If the Doctor says it's a cure, then it is," Rose stated. "Now, just about fifteen minutes. I'll be out as soon as I'm done."

"Wait. Can I come in and watch?" he asked hopefully.

"I wish you could, but the rule is, 'no one in but me and the Doctor'. I'll be back soon."

Rose came back out almost exactly fifteen minutes later with a smaller beaker containing a light blue liquid.

"Here you go," she offered it to him. "One GSTVI."

Alex took it and just stared at it. "This is really it? This is the cure?"

"Yep."

He continued staring at it in thought.

"Are you nervous about it? I promise I mixed it right. Even added the green apple flavoring as directed."

"Green apple?" he chuckled. "I always figured that if anyone came up with a cure, it'd be some kind of long drawn out procedure of electric brain stimulation treatments or something. Just a couple ounces of this stuff and that's it. I just can't understand it. How can you have a cure when it's supposed to be incurable? Wait, this isn't that conspiracy thing is it? Companies withholding cures because the medical community makes too much money from long term treatments and medication? Who do you work for?"

"Wow, I've never actually heard that conspiracy before. But, no, that's not us. We don't work for anyone. Just me and the Doctor. And I'm sure it seems really unfair that we have these cures and aren't sharing them, but it's really something we can't do. It's not that we don't want to help people because we do. In fact, that's actually what we do. No employer, just going and helping out where we can. Like here," Rose tried to explain.

"That's another question: how did you even get here?" asked Alex. "That Doctor said he was trying to figure out who and what did this to us so he could reverse it. Can he really do that? How does he do that?"

"He's a genius," Rose said simply. "You'll never meet another person like him. Give him a science theorem and he'll have it proven or disproven halfway through. Math – he's a living calculator. He knows every plant and animal type on Earth throughout history. A school disappears into prehistoric time? Not only will he find them, he'll put them back in just a few days. A boy that suffers from epilepsy? Easy-peasy."

"Easy-peasy…" Alex repeated. He shrugged his shoulders and drank the liquid cure he'd been offered. "So what happens now?"

"Dinner. It's probably getting cold. See ya later." Rose waved at him and disappeared into the TARDIS.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor raced into the TARDIS shouting Rose's name and dropping his electronic equipment on the jumpeat.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" Rose shouted as she raced down the hallway. They met at the top of the stairs. "What's wrong? What's the matter?" she asked hurriedly.

"You!" he answered. "I've been looking all over for you. I was asking around and nobody had a clue. I even asked over the loud speaker. That Alan kid said that when he left, you went back in the TARDIS. This is the Pliocene. It's a dangerous place. You can't just go off without telling someone where you're going. You could have been mauled by a bear, a titanis, or a dog. You could have been trampled by a mastodon. You-"

"Could have been sat on by a ground sloth?" Rose offered.

"Yes. I mean, no. Although, I guess it could be possible. But you know what I'm saying."

"And you know what I have to say? You knew exactly where I was going and I haven't left. I went to the TARDIS to patch up that group of kids and then stuck around. And by the way, his name is Alex, not Alan." Rose smiled at him and ran her fingers through his hair. "Now come have some dinner."

"Dinner?"

"Yes. I stuck around to make us some dinner. We have to eat, too. Although I feel horribly guilty eating well when everyone out there is close to starving," Rose said miserably.

"We'd share if we could, but we don't have anywhere near enough to go around," he reminded her.

"I know, but I still feel guilty."

"So, what are we having?" he inquired as she led the way to the kitchen.

"Pasta. Theirs looked good so I thought we'd have some, too."

Rose served them both and they sat down at the table together.

"So how are things going?" she asked. "Did you find anything?"

"Not a single piece. I got hopeful for a second, but it turned out to be someone's gum wrapper," he said in frustration. "Whatever did this to the school, it had to be physical. The force field that was created around it had to be created by something. There's no possible way it could have been left in 2012. It has to be here and I need to find it. It's possible that most of it shattered into tiny pieces, but there still has to be a few big chunks. Or even better, one huge chunk."

"And the sun's gone down now, hasn't it? You'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm sorry."

"At least I got some readings. And you've been magnificent. It looks like the school's under control now," he said optimistically.

"For this evening anyway," Rose said heavily. "They need food. The only thing they have left is some rice that will only be enough for one meal. And they're not getting enough nutrition. I was thinking that maybe I could take my TARDIS and go get some provisions?"

"We can't. It doesn't matter if the TARDISs leave, but when they come back, it messes with the readings. I've already got to do some calculations to figure out how our landing here affected things."

"I had a feeling that might be the case. Otherwise you would have asked me to go already."

"Sorry," the Doctor apologized. "I'm sure we can still get through this."

"Yeah, me too. I've been thinking and I had a look in the box room-"

"The box room?" the Doctor asked in surprise.

"Yes. We've really got to organize it. I found what I wanted pretty quickly though."

"Protein bars," the Doctor answered for her. "You always tease me for stocking up on them. I bet you're glad I have them now."

"I just thought the number was a rather excessive for the two of us."

"Not if we got stranded for a long period of time."

"Alright. I won't say another word against them again. Anyway, I found 1,000 protein bars. If we give them out just for breakfast, that will last them 3 days. That will give them carbs, protein, and vitamins. We still need to figure out dinner though. Troy knows a few edible plants, but they're really not filling. We'd have to search and pick for hours and hours. So what about you? Can you identify some things we could collect?"

"Yes," he replied. "I'm sure I could find some good roots and large leaves that can either be boiled or eaten like salad. That should help. Maybe before breakfast, you and I can go out. After breakfast, you can take a large group out to gather."

"You should collect a large group, too. It'll be easier to find something if you've got a lot of people searching."

"I think I will," he agreed.

"One other thing I found in the box room. Those Gallifreyan freeze-dried pills. I imagine they're not good anymore, but I still thought I'd ask."

"Of course they're still good. My people live for thousands of years, our food lasts practically forever."

"I still can't believe that's considered food." Rose shook her head. "How do people go from eating delicious foods to living off of freeze-dried pellets?"

"Pills, not pellets. Pellets sound like pet food that's nibbled by domestic rodents. And my people thought that far too much time and effort was wasted by harvesting, distributing, preparing, and consuming food. That was my people though. Personally, I find that preparing and eating food is social and extremely enjoyable. We can't rely on those pills too heavily in this situation though. Their bodies aren't used to them. They may supply everything the body needs, but their stomachs expect something more. They could still have hunger pain."

"We'll rely mainly on the protein bars for nutrition, but in case we don't come up with enough food for dinner, we have a backup plan," Rose said decisively. "Want to come say goodnight to them with me?"

"Absolutely."

"I wish we had something to see them through the night. Blankets or something."

"We would if we could, but 263 people… there's no possible way. They might not be comfortable but they won't get too cold. It's warmer in this time period than in the future. Let's go say goodnight," the Doctor suggested.

Rose and the Doctor headed up to the school and found nearly everyone in the gym. Some were chatting and others seemed lost in their own thoughts, but all were getting prepared to get some sleep. Most of them had jackets to cover up with, but a few had choir robes they were using.

The Doctor used the Om-Com and speakers to address them again. He thanked them for their cooperation and promised them food and water in the morning. He also informed them that there would be much to do the next day and that they would all be expected to help. He wished them goodnight and he and Rose retired to the TARDIS for the night.

Rose awoke early the next morning, but not earlier than the Doctor. When she got out of bed, she found him in the kitchen just serving up breakfast for them both. Rose showered and dressed and went outside to explore with the Doctor. The day before, she was trying to convince everyone not to be so afraid. The truth was, the further they went from the school and the TARDIS, the scarier it felt. Everything was so foreign and the woods were filled with all kinds of animals, many of them giant.

The Doctor didn't look as concerned. He went along looking at every plant. When he found one he thought looked good, he'd pick it up and taste it. His senses were far superior to humans. One taste told him many things, especially nutritional value and if it would be harmful to humans. Each thing he approved of, he put in a bucket that Rose was carrying. When they had an acceptable assortment, they called it a success and returned to the TARDIS to get what they needed to start the day.

When they entered the school, the Doctor called everyone to the cafeteria. When it looked like everyone had arrived, he handed the Om-Com to Rose so she could continue the announcement.

"Good morning, Glen Henry High School. Breakfast is here. This morning we have protein bars. It might not sound exciting, but they're filling and have balanced nutrition for you. Everyone takes just one. Water will be served soon after. You can eat your protein bar now or save it for after your water. It's up to you. When you're finished, please go to the gym. All except…" Rose took the list of names and called off the first four. "Those people, I'd like to please wait by the front door. So, as soon as Mr. Brunner is ready, give him your name and grab some breakfast."

Rose and the Doctor stayed where they were, looking over Rose's own copy of the roster. Donovan had given her a highlighter and she and the Doctor were discussing how many people they should take on each of their tasks. They thought it best to go straight down the list.

"Hey! She took two!" one boy shouted, pointing at the girl that just grabbed her breakfast.

"She did! I saw her!" the boy claimed again.

The girl reached in her back pocket and pulled out a single bar to show them.

Rose looked at Donovan.

"It looked like she just took one, but I wasn't looking that closely," Donovan confessed.

"She picked up two at once," the boy explained. "She picked them up like a stack. Check her! Check her pockets!"

He didn't wait for anyone else and left the line to search her himself. Two other people had moved to do the same.

"Stop!" Rose and the Doctor bellowed together.

"No one touches her," Rose commanded. She turned to the girl. "Please come with me."

Rose led her to an empty classroom and closed the door.

"So?" she asked calmly. "Did you take an extra?"

The girl looked down and didn't say a word.

"I'll take that as a yes. Want to tell me why?" Rose requested.

The girl still didn't answer.

"I recognize you from yesterday, you know," Rose continued. "I asked for people that needed medical attention and you looked conflicted. Does this have to do with that? Are you ready to tell me what's wrong now?"

The girl wrapped her arms around herself protectively, still unsure of what to say.

"I know something's wrong. Whether it's connected to this incident or not, I need to know what it is. Now, Jessica, I need you to answer me. What's going on?" Rose insisted.

"It's Jess," the girl quietly corrected.

Rose had just read her name tag, but used the girl's preferred name when she probed again. "Jess, you have to tell me. If you're ill, I need to know. The Doctor and I have sworn to send everyone home in good health. I want to help, but I can't if you won't tell me."

Jess spoke so quietly that Rose couldn't hear her and had to ask her to say it again.

"I'm pregnant," she repeated quietly.

"Oh," Rose answered. It suddenly all made sense. "No one knows, do they?"

Jess shook her head.

"How far along are you?" Rose inquired.

"16 weeks," Jess answered.

"A little bit into the second trimester already," Rose acknowledged. "You should have said. I certainly won't tell. And if Mr. Brunner is the kind of man I think he is, he would have made sure that you got the extras you needed before we even got here. You must be terrified right now. You shouldn't have to experience this alone."

"I just don't want anyone to know. I'm not sure yet whether I'm keeping it or not. I mean, by keep or not, I mean whether to put it up for adoption. Either way, I don't want it to die or be messed up or something. And I don't want anyone to know because… I don't want to be that girl. I don't want to be remembered as that girl who got pregnant in high school. That girl who screwed up her life before it really started. Graduation was just a few weeks away. I thought I could keep it secret. Now, in this situation, I feel like I'd be stared at and judged even more."

"I understand, but I hope you don't judge yourself that way. The decisions we make and the changes they bring shouldn't define who we are. Whether you decide to keep it or not, you still have great potential. You haven't screwed up your life. Your life has just taken a turn you didn't expect."

Jess just shrugged.

"No, I mean it. I should know. I dropped out of school at 16. I went off with a guy who turned out to be a jerk and put me in serious debt. I had to move back in with my mum. I thought I was doomed to be that stupid dropout and a shop girl forever. I'm not though. And you don't have to define yourself by this either."

"You dropped out at 16? But you're a scientist, right? How'd you get into college?"

"I didn't go. I started travelling with the Doctor. He taught me. He told me what I'm telling you. Making decisions you regret, doesn't make you any less clever. And it certainly doesn't make you worth any less. We're going to make sure you get back home and you're going to have a great life ahead of you. There are so many things you can do with your life. So many choices. Don't get hung up on the one thing you wish you'd done differently. Now… I think it's time we give you a little checkup."

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" she worried.

"Only the Doctor and he won't tell anyone either," Rose assured her. "In return, I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread around my own secret. The last thing I need is for people to start thinking that I'm stupid. If people start thinking that, they'll second-guess every decision I make. We really don't need that right now."

"You're not stupid. Anyone can see that," Jess declared, "but I won't tell anyone. What about this checkup though? And the protein bar? What am I supposed to say?"

"That you have a medical condition and you don't want to talk about it," Rose stated. "As for the protein bar, I am going to need it back. I'm going to make sure you're taken care of and get the nutrition you need, but I can't let you take extra food. Extra water you will definitely get. When it comes to tasks… People really are going to be forced to step up and do what's needed, but I'll make sure your work is light and kept close to the school."

"Alright. So when do we do this checkup? Where?" Jess asked as she handed over the extra protein bar.

"The lab. And no time like the present."

Jess and Rose walked out to the front doors and found the Doctor and the four people Rose had called for earlier.

"Alright?" asked the Doctor.

"Alright," she assured him.

"Okay then. Time for water," he announced. He and Rose, hand in hand, led the way to the TARDIS.

"Alright, we're going to grab the water now. Everyone just wait here," Rose instructed.

Once they were inside, Rose turned to the Doctor. "Her name's Jess. She's pregnant and she doesn't want anyone to know."

The Doctor nodded. "How far along?"

"16 weeks."

"Water first, then we'll have a look at her."

The Doctor and Rose worked together and quickly got all four jugs of water outside. The assistants were instructed to take it to Donovan's room and when they had gone, the Doctor and Rose both turned to Jess.

"Hi, Jess. I'm the Doctor. Rose has caught me up a bit. Just a few questions before we start. Have you been vomiting at all?"

Jess shook her head. "Not in a few weeks."

"Good. That's good. What about cramps? Not stomach cramps. Have you had any abdominal pain?" he continued.

"A little, yeah," she said anxiously.

"What about spotting? Any little drops of blood in your knickers? More than a little?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Rose, I'm going to grab a couple things from the infirmary. Would you grab the diagnostic screen, please?"

They both retrieved what was needed, they exited the TARDIS together.

"The first thing we're going to do is have a little look," said the Doctor. He held up the same screen Rose had used to check for broken bones the day before. The Doctor put it on a different setting and it looked much like an ultrasound picture, but clearer.

"It's moving good. How's the heart rate?" Rose whispered.

"Good," the Doctor announced. "She's moving all over the place and shows no signs of distress."

"She?" asked Jess.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor apologized. "Did you not want to know?"

"You're sure then?" she asked.

"At my age, I should hope I know the difference between girl parts and boy bits. Definitely looks like a girl to me," the Doctor claimed. "That doesn't necessarily mean all is well though. I'm going to need a urine sample. Have you gone yet this morning?"

Jess shook her head.

Rose handed her a specimen cup and told her she could go behind the 'lab' if she wanted. The Doctor went to test it and came out a few minutes later.

"Definitely dehydrated and your ketone reading is high. It means your body is breaking down fat stores because you're not getting enough carbohydrates. We already know you're not getting enough nutrition. Water for you is doubled. As for food…"

"I was thinking Gallifreyan freeze-dried pellets," Rose suggested.

"Pills. Pills, not pellets," he corrected her again. "It would probably be most fair and would draw the least attention if she'd like to keep this quiet." He directed his next comments to Jess. "I know a pill doesn't sound like much, but it's not a multivitamin, it's a meal substitute. It has protein and carbohydrates and everything you need. We'll give it to you sometime during the day and we want you to take it with evening water. Sound alright?"

Jess nodded. "Thank you."

"Of course. If anything starts to feel different, if you have more cramps or have spotting or anything else that might worry you, seek one of us out. Don't even wait until you see us next. If you have a concern, find us right away. Alright?"

"Alright."

"Where is she on the roster?" asked the Doctor.

"She's toward the top. She's supposed to be in my group today, but I thought we could swap. I give you her and you send me one of yours?" Rose suggested.

"That works for me," the Doctor agreed.

"Groups? What groups?" Jess worried.

"I told you that people are going to have to start working," Rose reminded her. "I also told you you'd get the easier stuff. He's just scouring the area around the school and he needs help finding little bits of metal and plastic."

"What's your group supposed to do?"

"Leave our comfort zone. It's time to go deeper into the forest."

* * *

**This chapter went in a different direction than I thought, but I based the school dynamic on my own high school experiences (I wasn't the pregnant one though!). This was small town Ohio for me. **

**As for the Gallifreyan freeze-dried pills, they're actually not my idea. I do a lot of research when writing and I discovered that Gallifreyans really did switch to freeze-dried pills. I just had to share that little nugget of information.**

**And, for no particular reason, I've decided to post another chapter tonight. It will be up soon. **

**Thank you so, so much for all the reviews!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright, is everyone here?" asked Rose when she finished calling off the names for her group. She stood on her toes and craned her neck as she tried to count them all. Fifteen, just the number she was looking for.

The Doctor finished counting his group, too, and nodded.

"Okay, I need William Sievertson over in my group and Jessica Skelley in the Doctor's group," Rose instructed.

"Why?" William asked distrustfully.

"Because the Doctor needs Jessica in his group," Rose said simply. "My group go outside, go to your right, and wait against the building. I'll be there in a second."

"Be careful," the Doctor told her seriously. "I want you to find what you need, but be cautious. _Very_ cautious."

"I will, love," she assured him. He stroked her cheek and gave her a kiss on the head.

The Doctor took his group outside and Rose started scanning the people that were gathered around to watch the selected groups leave. She was thinking about grabbing the Om-Com, but the people she was looking for came up behind her. She was startled and laughed.

"We heard you were going out," said Jake. "Need a couple extras?"

"If you want. We could always use extra hands. We just thought the adventurers might want a break," Rose explained.

"And do nothing but sit around the school?" asked Troy. "We'd go crazy."

"Well, you're welcome to come. I was actually looking for you anyway. I was hoping we'd be able to use that mop bucket," Rose requested.

Troy offered to go get it and Rose approached her group.

"Okay, I'll be frank. We're out of food. We have some rice and that's great, but it's not enough. Our job is to go get food," Rose informed them. "The Doctor and I went out this morning and found some plants that are safe and nutritious. We have a few we picked in this bucket to act as examples. In a minute, I'm going to ask you to have a look and familiarize yourself with them."

"Wait, where are we going to get them?" one of the girls asked anxiously.

"Today we're heading east," Rose answered, pointing to her left at the forest. "It's scary, I know, but you've got to eat. We won't go any further in than we have to. The forest is filled with vegetation, so I really hope we won't have to go that far."

"But there's hardly any vegetation!" argued one of the boys.

"This is just a clearing," said Jake. "A little further in, the trees get closer, not too close, but not like this, and there are all kinds of ferns and flowers and other plants."

"What about wild animals?" asked a female teacher in the group.

"We've seen a lot of really weird stuff," said Troy, coming up next to Rose, "but we haven't seen any carnivores yet."

"Yet," the teacher repeated. "And what if someone gets lost? What if we all get lost?"

"We're taking measures against that. And I'd like to ask you, Jake, if you would take that responsibility," said Rose. "I have some spray chalk. As we go along, I'd like you to spray a mark on the back of some trees that we pass. That way, when we turn around to go back, our path will be clear."

"Sure," said Jake.

Rose reached in the bucket, took out the spray chalk, and tossed it to Jake.

"Another thing we're going to do is count. I want to make sure no one wanders too far we don't lose track of anyone. Right now, I'm going to say your name and you're going to say a number. Do not forget your number. I'll say Melinda Holwarth and she'll say one, I'll say Ashley Reinhart and she'll say two. The next person will say three, then four and so on. Remember your number. When we're in the forest and I shout 'count', Melinda will start the count and everyone will count by saying their own number. Understood?"

Everyone nodded and Rose began calling out names. She originally had fifteen, but Jake and Troy made seventeen. Rose had everyone look over the plants, instructing that they know them well. She was bringing the bucket with her so that if anyone needed a reminder, they could compare.

Finally, Rose believed they were ready. In truth, she was about as anxious as they were, but she knew she couldn't let it show. They needed a fearless leader so that was what she'd be. She took a compass out of her pocket and led the group with a confident stride. With the Doctor, it didn't feel like they went in that far before the forest floor was completely covered with vegetation. It seemed much, much further without him.

The trees were all very large and spread out further than many forests she'd been in, but they were much closer than the trees around the TARDIS. There were a lot of ferns and such, but not nearly the numbers they needed. Finally, they made it to a place where they were surrounded by it. She looked back and couldn't see the school through the trees anymore.

"A little less than half a mile," Troy told her.

She looked at him in surprise.

"I can count distance by my steps," he explained. "One of the things I learned from my dad taking me camping. I know it's a little further than you expected, but we should be fine."

"Thanks. And when we get back, you better thank your dad," Rose said with a smile. "Alright, everyone. Remember what you're looking for. Spread out a bit, not too far, but enough so that you have a good spot of your own. Then start gathering. Once your arms get full, put it in the mop bucket. If you need a reminder of what you're looking for, check the small bucket I have over here. But first… Count."

Seventeen were counted and everyone got to work. One of the girls screamed when an armadillo popped out of a rotting log and soon after a boy shrieked when a large bug crawled on his hand. Rose was startled and on guard each time, but when she saw what they were screaming about, she just chuckled and got back to work. Another ground sloth came into view and Rose told them about it before anyone could freak out. They looked anxious about it, but kept working. They were at it for quite awhile, but the bucket was still filling up much quicker than she anticipated. It was about three quarters full. Her goal was to get it to the top.

She was getting ready to call for a count again when a terrifying squawk pierced the air. Rose looked up in fear and immediately shouted 'run!'

Everyone was alarmed and looked about. They were moving, but not fast enough. Rose shouted the order again and when they saw what was coming, they took off, some of them giving out a scream.

It was one of the predators that the Doctor had warned her about - Titanis. A flightless bird built like an ostrich, except much stockier. Its muscular legs gave it great speed and its head was large with a huge axe-like beak. It was over eight feet tall and gaining on them. Rose had been furthest into the forest and was therefore behind the rest as they fled, but she preferred it that way. She came prepared.

The large bird fell with a thud.

"Stop!" Rose shouted to everyone. "Stop! I said Stop! It's fine! It's dead! It's fine! Come back!"

People glanced over their shoulders and slowed down. A couple started tentatively returning, but Rose had to call the others a few more times before they came. They all stood in disbelief as they looked at the bird.

"What the hell just happened?!" asked Jake.

"Count," Rose ordered.

The count stopped at number nine, Rose checked her list, and shouted for a boy named Jackson. He didn't answer so she assumed he made it back to the school. They continued the count without him. She had sixteen.

"Okay…" said Jake. "What the hell just happened?!"

"I killed it," Rose stated the obvious.

"I can see that. You blew its brains out. Literally. But with what?" Jake probed.

Rose sighed and pulled a laser handgun out of the back waist of her trousers. "I wasn't going to ask anyone to come out here unless I knew I could protect them."

"What the hell is that?!" asked Jake.

"It's a laser weapon."

Jake reached out to touch it and Rose pulled it back and tucked it away again.

He gaped in astonishment. "You practically blew its whole head off with that little thing?"

"Doesn't matter. What does matter is that it's dead. It's dead and it's now dinner. It's probab-"

"Rose?! Rose?!" The Doctor's voice carried as he raced into the forest.

"I'm alright, Doctor!" she shouted back. "Everyone's alright!"

The Doctor followed her voice and raced over to her. He spared a very quick glance at the bird, but immediately started looking her over. She tried to tell him again that she was alright, but he spun her around to access her from behind. When he was satisfied, he spun her around again.

"I was at the school and some people said they heard a few screams so I started over. Then a boy comes out saying a bird was attacking. Then I heard you screaming…" The Doctor looked completely overwhelmed.

"I wasn't screaming. I was shouting," she corrected. "I found dinner and there's no possible way I can get that thing back to the school on my own."

"You're really alright?" The Doctor took her face in his hands and just stared at her. He knew that she was alright, but he didn't feel it yet himself. He'd been just as terrified as they were. Rose kissed him and ran her fingers through his hair.

"I'm perfectly fine, love," she assured him.

The Doctor finally had a good look at the titanis. "Ugh, its brains are falling out. I guess that means it was a good shot."

"Good? That thing was wicked fast. That's better than good," said Jake. "She's freakin' awesome."

"Thanks," Rose chuckled. "Back to the task. It'll probably be easiest to drag it by its legs. Its legs should be long enough that a few people can take hold. Maybe two people could push it by its body, just be sure to push forward and make sure not to push down when doing it. I'll go grab the buckets."

"I'll help," the Doctor offered.

"I can't do this," one of the girls said. She looked like she might be sick.

"Just don't look at the head," the teacher told her. "Grab it by the leg and pretend you're pulling something else. It's heavy so we're all going to have to take turns."

Rose smiled proudly. Some of them were starting to step up a bit. She turned and went back in search of the buckets. The Doctor walked at her side.

"It was pretty close, wasn't it?" the Doctor asked.

"Much closer than I'd like it, but we all got out unscathed," she reminded him. "Plus we have meat and veggies."

"I shouldn't have let you come out here without me."

"How would that have changed anything? Anyway, you're needed at the school. Did anyone find anything yet?" she inquired as they picked up the buckets.

"Jess!" he said excitedly. "Clever Jess. We were looking for something that ricocheted off the school, but it didn't. Jess suggested that it could be on the roof and that's where it was!"

"Fantastic! How's its condition?"

"Pretty broken up. The entire shell has been burned and either broken or completely shattered. I can still learn a lot from the inner parts."

"Any idea who it belongs to?"

"No idea. I'll figure it out though," he assured her. "So what's your next project?"

"The titanis, of course. I need more 'volunteers' to help ready it for the cooks. Most likely some involuntary volunteers. I have no idea how I'm going to get anyone to leave the school for more food and cooking water after this though. If they were apprehensive before, they'll be terrified now."

"But at least now they'll know they're protected," he reminded her.

"Yeah, maybe. I guess we'll just have to see."

The Doctor and Rose made it back to the school and put the bucket down near the titanis. Most of the school was outside looking at it or peering out the windows.

"Okay, Doctor, you get back to work. I've got to get to mine. Good luck."

"No, good luck to you. I've got the easy job," he said with a smile.

Rose laughed and stepped up to address the crowd. "As you can see, my group brought back some dinner. They did amazing so I hope you're all grateful. More jobs to do though. I need some volunteers to help get this stuff ready to cook. I think eight volunteers would be good. Anyone willing to step up?"

Not a single person raised their hand.

"Okay," Rose continued, "but I think I should remind you that absolutely everyone is going to have to help out in one way or another. I can go down my list and pick the next eight people, but if you're not helping here, you're likely going to go out to fetch water or go into the forest to collect more food tomorrow. If you'd rather not leave the school, this would probably be the job for you."

More than twenty hands went up. Rose wasn't picky. She just started pointing at people and those eight stepped forward. She took out her roster and highlighted their names. She then directed half to the bird and half to the plants. She told those at the plants to ask the cooks for several knives and some peelers. They dumped the plants on the ground and asked Troy to lead a group to go get some more water in the mop bucket so they could rinse off all the plants. The group Troy collected was also marked off on the roster.

The four people waiting by the titanis looked ill just viewing it. Rose told them to not pay attention to the head. They only needed to worry about the body. Step one was plucking. It was a big task, but it was quite a bounty. The bird was so large that its meat was approximately the equivalent of a dozen large turkeys. It would be about one pound of raw meat per person. It would cook down, but should still be enough for two days. It was a terrifying experience, but they were actually pretty lucky at coming across the beast.

They only got a little done when Jake stepped up. He told them it would be easier if they skinned it rather than pluck the whole thing. Plucking it all was only if you were planning to roast it whole. He gave them some instructions on the best way to go about it, but when he saw Rose walking away, he ran to catch up with her.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"People are going to need to wash their hands. I'm going to the lab to get some soap, a bucket, and some clean water."

"The lab? You mean that magic, blue box everyone keeps talking about?" he chuckled.

"Rumors are spreading, huh?" she said with a smirk.

"Of course. Everyone that's seen it says it's the size of a phone booth, but the stuff you bring out of it… sixteen gallons of water, medical and scientific equipment, medicine, food. You make copies, make announcements, do tests, and you didn't sleep in the school last night. You had to have slept in there. I really can't believe it, but the only thing that makes sense is that it's bigger on the inside."

Rose laughed again. "We usually try to keep that a secret, but it's stupid to deny it in this case. Yes, it's bigger on the inside."

"How? How does that work? And just how much bigger is it inside?"

"Seriously advanced technology. As for its size… let's just say it's big enough."

"You're from the future, aren't you? You can time travel. I mean, how else would you be able to come back to this time to save us? When are you from?"

"Actually, I was born in the 20th century, like you. I helped the Doctor out and he took me along."

"When's he from then? When do people discover time travel? It's gotta be restricted, so how do people get permission?"

"Alright. I'll answer those ones as long as you don't go spreading this part around," Rose offered. When he nodded, she continued. "Time travel is officially discovered in the 51st century. The Doctor had his 'lab' long before that so there's no way people can restrict us. Even if they tried, our 'lab' is far more advanced. The only people that are allowed to use time travel are people employed by the Time Agency. Their mission is to 'fix things' without having a big impact on history and making sure that no one in the past ever discovers them."

"The 51st century? The way people keep talking about the end of the world, I never imagined we'd ever get to that point. So how's that 'bigger on the inside' thing work? When do they figure out that stuff?"

"They don't. That's just the Doctor."

"He's that much of a genius?" he said in astonishment. "Well, if you're not part of some organization, what is it that you do?"

"Travel. We see the sights, explore, and help out whe-" Rose cut off when she caught sight of the TARDIS. Three students were gathered around it and one was obviously trying to pick the lock.

"What are you doing?!" she demanded as she stormed over to them.

They tried to run, but Jake blocked their path.

"You run and you'll be in twice as much trouble!" Rose threatened.

The three of them returned to her in defeat.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" she demanded again. "Trying to break in to our stuff? We came here to help you out. We've given you food and water and helped heal those that needed it. We're out trying to help you survive and figure out how to get you back home. We're working our arses off and risking our lives and you take advantage of that time to try to break into our lab?"

"We weren't going to take anything," the girl in the group said quietly. "We just wanted a look."

"And that makes breaking and entering okay?" Rose asked angrily. "So if I was curious about what your house looks like, I'd be welcome to break in while you were away and dig through your things? You obviously knew that we didn't want you in there, but you went for it anyway. You know what… I have too much to do to deal with this."

Rose pulled out her roster, looked at their name tags, and put a special mark next to each of their names.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the boys.

"Keeping an eye on you," she answered. "Tomorrow, when I go back in the woods to collect food, you're all coming with me. In addition, you're not getting dinner tonight."

"What?!" the girl cried.

"She almost died out there getting us food today," said Jake. "She has every right to deny you that."

"I'm not going to let you starve. I have a pill that will give you everything you need. Nutrition, but still empty bellies. I hope that when people ask you why you don't get meat and veggies tonight, you tell them exactly why. Now shift. I've got work to do."

Jake and Rose watched as they started back toward the school.

"I could stick around and help you carry the water back if you want," Jake offered. "If you want me to go back now though, that's okay, too."

"I'd love the help, thanks," she replied with a small smile. He was just what she needed just then – someone that understood and appreciated. She wasn't helping out to get praise, but she believed she was still owed a measure of respect.

"Hey, Jake," she said as she looked at him pensively. "Just how long have you been a hunter?"

"Eight years," he answered. "Why?"

"Eight years?" she said incredulously. "How old are you? You can't be older than eighteen."

"I am eighteen. I started hunting when I was ten. I started target shooting with rifles at seven and bows when I was eight," he stated.

"You're allowed to shoot guns that young?"

"You're allowed to shoot at whatever age your parents decide. Hunting is allowed at any age, too, but you have to pass a written test that's at a fifth grade reading level. I know an eight-year-old that passed it. My mom said I had to wait until I was ten."

"Target shooting for eleven years and hunting for eight. I take it you're pretty good then?"

"Very good. Why?" he asked curiously.

"Because I can't be everywhere at once. I don't know about you, but that bird scared the hell out of me. I'm thinking – _just thinking_ – that it might be nice to have another armed person to assist when people go out."

"Seriously?! I'd get to use a laser weapon?" he asked excitedly.

"Carry," she corrected. "Maybe you could _carry_ a weapon. I really hope you won't have to use it. Just a precaution. I still have to think about it and I have to discuss it with the Doctor. I assume by your response that you'd be interested in that."

"Hell yeah!"

Rose smiled and shook her head. "I'll think about it and talk to the Doctor, but if the Doctor talks to you about it, you better not respond like that. We don't care for weapons. I only carry one when there's serious danger and it's only for self-defense. The Doctor dislikes them even more than me. If he talks to you about it, it's a solemn duty, not a thrilling opportunity. Understood?"

"Understood."

"Okay, I'll be right back out." Rose was ready to go inside, but paused with the door open just a tiny crack. She grinned when she looked back a Jake. She couldn't help herself.

"Secret," she said. "Absolute secret. Can I trust you to keep one?"

"Of course."

"Can't tell a single soul," she persisted.

"I promise."

"You can't come inside, but if you'd like a peek…"

Rose opened the door and stood to the side. Jake gaped in astonishment at the size and the lights.

"Stairs… hallways… H-how big?"

"This is just the entry room. You'll have to use your imagination for the rest," she teased. "I'll be out in a minute."

Rose walked through the halls with a smile. The day wasn't over and she could use that smile to make it through the rest.

* * *

**What do you think? Please review. ^^**


	6. Chapter 6

When Rose had grabbed what she needed from the TARDIS, she and Jake headed back to the school. Jake carried the bucket of water for her while she got off with just carrying the soap. Those that had gone into the forest to gather plants were allowed to wash their hands first. Those that were cutting and peeling the vegetables, were finished first and washed their hands next. The water was terribly dirty after that so she and Jake fetched more water. When they got back, the four that skinned and sliced the titanis washed up. Rose meant to leave the water for the cooks, but many others begged to use it, too. Water had only been allowed for drinking so no one had washed their hands for days.

Rose couldn't deny them. It took three more trips for water to allow everyone to wash up. Rose's next stop was to talk to Donovan. She told him about the students that tried to break into the lab and handed him three of the Gallifreyan freeze-dried pills to substitute for their dinner. She took one last pill to Jess, just as she and the Doctor had promised. That, in addition to her dinner, would keep her in better health.

Rose was dying for the opportunity to just sit for a minute, but there was still more to do. She enlisted the next four people on the roster to help fetch water for the evening meal. After that, she had to escort another group to gather more wood for the cooking fire. By the time dinnertime came, she hardly had the strength just to walk back to the TARDIS. She was extremely hungry after all the work she'd done, but grimaced at the thought of preparing something. It was just one more task.

When she walked into the kitchen, she found the Doctor there, just finishing the dinner preparations.

"Oh, thank you," she sighed in relief.

"There's my survivalist," he greeted with a smile. "I thought you might be tired, so I figured I'd do the cooking tonight."

"Tired? I'm exhausted," she moaned. She plopped down on one of the kitchen chairs and laid her head on the table. The coolness of the table felt good against her heated cheek.

"You've been working hard," he acknowledged. "Very, very hard."

"Yeah, but someone's got to look after them. The whole lot of them were helpless and ready to roll over and die when we got here," she reminded him. "The thing is, they see we're trying to help and know we can't do it on our own, but still no one volunteers. I have to call out names and even threaten them sometimes, for them to help out. They just expect everyone else to take care of them."

"That's their society though. Most of them are students that have never had to work before. They rely on their parents to take care of them. And the staff, their jobs may be difficult and important, but not in this way. I'm sure there are still a few people that are willing to help out though."

"The adventurers," Rose agreed. "Especially Jake and Troy. They're incredible."

She sat up in her chair when the Doctor brought the plates to the table.

"Yeah, I saw they went out gathering with you today."

"It's a relief," she told him. "They make me feel like I'm not the only one trying to make this work. Donovan and the cooks, too. They see what needs to be done and do what they can."

"Reaffirmation of human strength, determination, and diligence," he agreed.

"Yeah… I want to talk to you about something though," she said tentatively. "I can't be everywhere at once, you know."

"Obviously."

"That whole titanis thing really scared me. I know I can take care of myself, and I'm confident that I can protect those around me, but I'm worried about the people that are off doing other tasks."

"It's like you said; you can't be everywhere at once."

"Right. So I've been thinking. Thinking hard. I know you're not going to like this… but I think maybe we should let Jake carry a gun just in case."

"No," the Doctor answered immediately.

"Just listen. He's been hunting for eight years and target shooting even longer. He knows how to use one and has to be pretty good. He's responsible and I trust him," she said seriously. "If we need two separate groups to go out. I can protect one and he can protect the other."

"He may have used guns before, but he's never used laser weapons. He-"

"I never shot with anything before I picked up a laser weapon. I never had target practice, let alone practice aiming at a moving target. I'm sure it can't be much different. And I'm not talking about him going hunting. I'm talking about self-defense if a predator is after them. Do we take the risk of arming Jake or risk sending people out defenseless in a place swimming with dangers? What if someone really is attacked? What if someone dies? Someone that could have easily been saved by a skilled marksman?"

"You're very serious about this, aren't you?"

"Yes," Rose said vehemently.

The Doctor sighed and sat back in his chair as he considered the matter. After a few minutes, he finally conceded. "Something that can be aimed quickly and easily, no more powerful than it has to be, and you have to test him first. Have him practice behind the TARDIS. Test him. He _cannot_ take it unless he proves to be a good shot," he said very seriously. "If he's not good enough, you better be absolutely honest with yourself and not allow it."

"Thank you," Rose said earnestly.

They both turned back to their dinner and their own private thoughts. The Doctor was still scanning the image of the device that had brought the school to this period in history. He could see it in his head and was still working it out from where he was. Rose had her own thoughts, all of them focused what needed to be done the next day.

"You have more concerns," the Doctor said when he looked up at her. "What's wrong?"

"They're dirty," she answered. "They haven't bathed in at least a week. They're dirty and oily. Their clothes are just as bad, if not worse. They smell, they've got acne, they're itchy, and are all at serious risk of infection. You should have seen how excited they all were when I brought out some soap and water so they could wash their hands. I'd love to take them down to the lake to wash up, but I have no idea what kind of bacteria and animals are in there."

"Why didn't you just say so?" the Doctor asked. "Easy fix. Tansorian net field. Once it's spread, you close it up, add some disinfectants and antiseptics, and it's bath time."

"Oh, I could kiss you!" she exclaimed.

"I like kisses," he stated.

Because of his comment, she did get up and give him a kiss. "That's perfect. I never would have thought of the Tansorian net field. And after they wash their clothes, we can use a Borchrovin dryer so they don't have to wait for them to air dry. This is good. This is so good."

"Agreed. Next time, ask sooner."

"When do I have the time? I'm doing my thing and you're doing yours. Speaking of which, have you learned anything yet?" she inquired.

"I see how it works, but I'm not sure what to do with it yet. It's very primitive time manipulation. I'm almost certain that it was an accident that it fell on the school. I can't figure out yet if it was meant to take something back to this time period or if that was an accident, too. Either way, it acted like a time bomb. I want to do something similar to get them back, but I'm going to have to design and build it myself. I need it to be accurate."

"Do you have all the parts you need here?"

"I should, yes."

"How long will that take?" she asked worriedly.

"Only a day or two, I think."

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Yep. I've already started working on it."

"What about the one that brought them here? Do you know who made it?"

"No. Which concerns me. Someone is playing with dangerous, primitive time toys. There are only a handful of races that have time travel capabilities. Out of those, most don't actually use devices. Weeping angels, for example. They can send people back in time, but they don't use technology and can't travel themselves. This looks like a failed attempt to me, so it could come from anywhere and be done by any group or any individual in the universe. I don't know how to prevent this kind of thing from happening again if I don't know who did it."

"You can keep having a look and even keep studying it after the school is sent back. I'm sure you'll find a clue."

"Thanks. I hope so."

Rose stood up and took the dishes to the sink.

"No, no, I'll do the washing up. You relax for while," the Doctor offered.

"If I relax, I doubt I'll be able to get back up," she chuckled mirthlessly.

"Then don't get back up. I'll go talk to the school by myself tonight. Draw yourself a hot bath, put on some comfy jimjams, and rest. I'll be back in a bit."

"I love you," she told him. "I don't know if I tell you enough. I love you."

The Doctor pulled her into a hug and she gave him a kiss. As soon as they broke apart, she went to go draw that bath. Doctor's orders.

When her bath was through and she had dressed for the night, she headed to the library to do some reading and push away the next day's agenda. After a couple chapters, she decided she should go get some sleep. But not before she said goodnight to the Doctor.

She stood in the doorway of his workshop and he immediately looked up.

"What are you doing up this late?" he asked.

"10:00 isn't really late," she replied.

"It is when you're as exhausted as you are and plan to be up early again."

"Yeah, I know. I'm getting ready to turn in now. I just wanted to see you first," she explained. "How's it coming along?"

Rose walked over to have a look at his work. She hadn't even seen the 'time bomb' that he'd recovered. When she saw it sitting on the counter at his side, she was stunned by its condition. He said that the shell had broken and even shattered, but it was busted up even more than she'd expected. It was larger than she'd expected, too. The way the Doctor had been scouring the ground for tiny bits, she expected it to be about the size of a 2 liter soda bottle, not the huge device that was nearly as large as a laundry basket. She wondered how they could have possibly gotten it down from the roof and to the TARDIS. She was sure the Doctor had the tools to do it, but it was still likely extremely difficult.

"Good. I think I'm making nice progress," he said brightly. He picked up his notebook to give her a look. He had two pages dedicated to the readings he took, three and a half pages of notes on the 'time bomb' he recovered, and nine pages of notes and calculations for his own design. On the counter in front of him was the device he was building.

"Wow, it really does look like you're making progress. It looks like you're a quarter of the way through."

He appreciated her praise but had to disagree. "This is just the center. Many more pieces to go on. It's cylindrical so think of it this way: when you draw a spiral starting from the inside, you don't need much ink to make it around a few times, but as you progress and the outside gets larger, it takes a lot more ink to circle it just twice. It might look a quarter of the size, but there are a lot more pieces to go on. Then comes calculations and calibration."

"You're still doing fantastic. All of this in about ten hours? Very impressive."

He smiled with appreciation. "I plan to get even more done tonight. Well, tonight and all day tomorrow."

Rose's smile slipped. "You're not coming to bed tonight?"

"No, you know me. I can go days without sleep and suffer nothing for it. That's the plan. I'm pushing through 'til it's done. I can sleep once the school's back where it belongs," he said with determination.

Rose looked down and nodded.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"s'alright. I was just going to ask you to spend some time in bed with me. I haven't been able to spend much time with you for two days. I understand you wanting to work hard though." She did understand, but she was still disappointed.

"Some time in bed?" he asked with a goofy smirk. He took a few steps with a funny, teasing swagger to close the small distance between them and put his hands on her hips. Rose couldn't help but giggle. When it came to romantics like this, he tried to be smooth, but it ended up looking more humorous. It still had the effect he was looking for. She loved him, everything about him. He wasn't very suave or seductive when they flirted, but he was perfect the way he was. His manner might not be as smooth as he believed, but his intentions and attraction toward her were clear. He loved her and desired her intimately. Who he was and the way he loved her was what made him alluring.

"Honestly, I was just talking about a little cuddling," she admitted. She ran her hands up his chest and rubbed back down slowly. "But if it's something more that you're looking for, I'm pretty sure I can be persuaded."

The Doctor began lightly rubbing her hips. She smiled warmly and initiated their kiss. It was almost always her that kissed him. He always kissed back, but very rarely initiated. It had made her unsure at first. When she came back to him after so many years of separation, it felt like he had been waiting for her to be ready to step up to physical displays of affection, but once she opened kissing between them, it was only ever her that would kiss him. He seemed pleased when she did, but he never kissed first. If he ever did kiss her, it was only an endearing kiss on the head. She'd backed off a bit, afraid that her advances might not have been as welcome as she thought they would be. But then when they shared an embrace, she could see his disappointment when she didn't kiss him. She wasn't sure what to think or what to do. She tried again. She started every kiss and began light intimate touches. With every move she made, he reciprocated. Before long, she realized what it was. He was waiting for permission. After one and a half centuries, he still did it. The only signs he gave her that he desired such attention was a certain look when they embraced or a bit of light flirting. This time, he assumed it was what she was asking for. She still needed to kiss first.

Permission granted, the Doctor moved his hands up and down her sides and back, raising her shirt with each motion. Rose reached up and began undoing his bowtie. The Doctor moved lower, gripping her bottom and pulling her closer. Rose moaned in pleasure. He kissed a line down her throat and she continued unbuttoning his shirt. When his chest was exposed to her, she stroked his bare skin and wrapped her arms around him to lightly draw her nails down his back.

"Perhaps we should continue this in the bedroom," she whispered the suggestion.

It was difficult to stop even though they knew it would soon be continued. They made their way to the bedroom and advanced their affections. Rose pushed her exhaustion aside and made love to her husband.

The Doctor laid behind her, holding her close. He felt the call of his project in the workshop, but the heat of Rose's soft nude body against him had a greater pull and held him there with her. He waited until she fell asleep, and then a bit longer after that, before he gave in to the work that required his attention.

He didn't want to leave her side, but there was work to do and he was the only one that could accomplish it.

* * *

Character study - In all of my Eleven/Rose stories, I haven't really had intimate moments between Eleven and Rose. The reason is because I had a hard time picturing it. I love Ten/Rose and _love_ Nine/Rose. I see Nine as very passionate and I think Ten is passionate, too, but more playful. I have a hard time picturing Eleven like that. I don't think he loves any less; I think he loves Rose very deeply. The last part of this chapter is me exploring their physical relationship. I write for other people (you) but I write just as much for me. When I have a hard time imagining something, writing it out helps me examine my thoughts on it. I guess I picture that, before Rose's return, Eleven thought of sexual things as sort of a game and he didn't really feel the desire for physical intimacies. Rose is different. He doesn't want to play games like that with her. He loves her deeply and wants to be careful with her. He does emotionally connect soft touches and kisses with love now and he desires them, but he's still not really sure where and when they fit in. He leaves that to Rose. - Those are my own thoughts on it. What do you think?

Thank you SO Much for your reviews!


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Rose showered, dressed, and had a quick breakfast with a permanent smile on her face. Just before heading off to the school, she stopped at the Doctor's workshop to deliver some breakfast and a quick kiss. She had no idea how he could possibly dedicate countless hours of non-stop work to one project, but he only reminded her that she was doing the same.

When she arrived at the school's front doors, she knocked for someone to let her in. It had been a practice of theirs to lock the doors each night. A few people were gathered in the main hall where she could see them. When she was let in, she cheerfully greeted them with 'good morning'.

"I'm a bit early this morning, but I'm looking for-"

"Where were you last night?" the principal asked heatedly.

"What?" Rose asked in confusion. "I was in the lab."

"What he means is, where the hell were you when we needed you?!" one boy demanded.

"Oh god, what happened?" Rose asked worriedly.

"Wolves," a girl answered angrily. "Or some kind of dog things. They were outside barking and snarling. I thought you were supposed to keep us safe and stuff."

"Was anyone hurt?" Rose worried.

"No, but someone could have been," the principal replied.

"Were they clawing at the doors or something?" Rose turned around to have a look at the glass entrance doors. They looked fine.

"No, but if they had-" the principal started.

"They were after the titanis, weren't they?" Rose said when she realized. Most dogs in this time were more scavengers than hunters. "We'll drag it away from the school today. As long as we keep it a good distance from here, they shouldn't come back. As an extra precaution, make sure you keep the gym door closed. That way, if anything does get in, you'll-"

"As an extra precaution, you should be here!" the girl argued.

"And how would that help anything?" Rose replied angrily. "You expect me to go outside in the middle of the night to shoot and entire pack of dogs? I'm not a superhero. I don't have any special powers. If you ask me, you're overreacting over this. They were after a carcass. They had no interest in you. Even if they did, you have toughened glass doors and a thick wooden set of doors to the gym. The only possible thing I could have done was to tell everyone to stay in the gym with the door closed. And that should be obvious. If they can't see you, they'd have no idea there was anyone here.

"I thought I was doing a lot around here. I thought I had the right to go back to the lab after a hard day's work. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I don't deserve a chance to rest."

"Don't listen to them, Rose," Troy said as he rounded the corner with Jake. "They do one job every other day while you take on a dozen or more each day. That's at least twenty-four times the amount of work they do. They know that. They're just too ungrateful to care. Lazy, cowardly, and ungrateful."

"You have to know that not everyone's like that. We care," said Jake as he pointed to himself and Troy. "There are others, too. We know you don't have to be here. That you came just because you care. You could have given up and left already. You have to know, some of us really appreciate it. I mean _really_," he said ardently. "I want to go home. We're gonna get home because of you and the Doctor. There's no way we can thank you enough. Some will never say it at all. I know 'thank you' isn't enough, but I hope you can still accept it on behalf of everyone."

"Thank you," Rose said earnestly. "I _am_ here because I care. Everyone's getting home regardless of what they think of me. I just need people to realize that I'm actually a person. Just one person. I'll do everything I can, but I do have limits."

"We know," said Troy. "So whatever you need, you can count on us. Just ask."

"Thanks," she said again. "And actually, I came here to collect Jake… if you're still interested."

A huge smile spread across Jake's face. "Hell yeah!"

Rose laughed. "I had a feeling that'd be your response. Come on. Breakfast doesn't start 'til we're done."

Rose and Jake walked side by side and Rose discovered that his smile was contagious.

"So you talked the Doctor into it?" he asked.

"Took a bit of work, but I really do think it's best. It's dangerous out here and the more people we have out, the more likely we are to draw the wrong kind of attention."

"The Doctor might be upset about it and I don't know how you really feel about it, but I promise to be responsible. The first thing my parents taught me about guns was to respect them. They're not toys," he said seriously. "I might be really excited to carry a laser weapon, but I do know it's not a toy."

"I realized that about you. I wouldn't even suggest it if I didn't think you'd be responsible," she replied. "And I know how it is. I love playing with new technology. Our plan now is target practice. There isn't a guarantee that you get to carry one around yet. The Doctor's condition is that you prove you can handle a laser weapon."

"He's coming to watch?"

"No, he's in the workshop building a new time device. He just insisted that I be honest. If your aim is off, I'm going to have to say no. And I'm sorry, but it's a pretty tough test."

"No, that's fair. And I really don't have any doubts. I'm a good shot."

"Alright. The Doctor instructed that you get something quick and easy aim and only as powerful as necessary. You're used to rifles but I'm going to bring out a handgun also."

"One like you have?" he asked hopefully.

"No, the Doctor would kill me if I gave you something with that power. That thing could likely take out half of a tree trunk. It was a bit excessive, but I was afraid my weapon of choice might not cut it in this situation. It will though, so I'm switching yesterday's out for my favorite," she explained. "I'll pick a couple of good ones and be back out."

Rose returned a few minutes later with a gun in each hand and a large metal disk on her back. The metal disk turned out to be a target. She laid both guns on the ground near Jake then walked a straight path in front of them, stopping about sixteen yards away. There she laid a strip of metal on the ground, took the metal disk, and held it above the strip. There it hovered without support. When she returned to Jake, he was staring at the disk in awe.

"This is crazy," he said. "There's a floating target that I'm going to shoot with a laser rifle. No one in my lifetime is ever going to be able to do this. What kind of sucks is that I can't say anything. No one would ever believe me."

"Welcome to my world," Rose chuckled. "Okay, which would you like to start with? Which do you think you could aim the fastest and be most accurate with, the rifle or the handgun? Oh, and don't doubt the handgun's power. These two weapons are equal in strength and no kick with either of them."

"Handguns are supposed to be faster to aim, but I really don't have much experience with them. I think I'd like to try the rifle first," he requested.

Rose picked it up, but before she let him touch it, she pointed out the basics and most importantly, the safety. Jake looked extremely excited as he took it from her, but also started showing the signs of nervousness. He really wasn't sure what to expect.

"There are no rings on the target to guide you. You just have to aim for the center the best you can. So, I guess… have at it," Rose instructed.

Jake took his first shot and was stunned. It was just like Rose had said, no kick, but there was hardly any noise either. There was a short, high pitched hum, a flash of light, and a ting when the laser hit the metal. There weren't any holes in the metal, but there was a dot of color where the laser hit. Feeling more confident, Jake shot a few more times.

Rose told him to stop and lifted a pair of binoculars that were around her neck. She took them off and held them out for Jake.

"Safety," she reminded him.

"Safety's already on," he said with a smirk. He took the binoculars and saw that almost all of his marks were in the center with only a few straying toward the outside. The marks suddenly vanished and he looked at Rose. She had a remote in her hand that cleared the target.

"Pretty good," she acknowledged, "but now I want you to quick draw. Have the weapon by your side, lift it quickly, and shoot almost immediately. If there's real danger, you'll have to be quick."

Jake nodded, took off the safety, and did as she requested. After a few quick draw shots, they stopped to check the target again. The marks were a little bit more scattered, but still mostly near the center. He looked quite proud.

"One more test and we'll move to the handgun. Moving target and quick draw." Rose pressed a different button on the remote control and the target started circling.

Jake sighed. This was definitely going to be more difficult. He became more frustrated with each shot. He could shoot moving targets and he was pretty good at quick draw, but putting them together felt impossible.

"I can't do it," he said dejectedly. He hadn't taken a look at the target yet, but he doubted there were many near the center. Twice, he missed the target completely, one shot hitting the ground and the other a tree trunk, which left a hole that went straight through.

"Don't worry about it. It's tough. You still have the handgun to try," Rose said supportively. "I know I definitely prefer those."

She showed him the handgun and then asked him to perform the same three challenges. He was surprised to find that he was actually pretty good with the handgun. No worse than he was with the rifle. When it came to quick draw with the moving target again, he had the same trouble and was even more upset.

"Look, I'm definitely no expert. If there's any proper way to hold a laser handgun, I haven't a clue what it is, but I can show you how I do it, if you want," Rose offered.

Jake just shrugged, still feeling discouraged by his shortcomings.

"Alright, I'm sure you're probably holding it like you should properly hold a handgun – two-handed, but that's not how I do it. It has no kick, remember? I hold it in one hand. When I lift it, I keep my wrist straight. This might be me not holding it properly again – my thumb is always straight, not curled, and that's how I aim. The weapon I use doesn't even have a barrel you can look down," she explained. She beckoned for the handgun, held it by her side, and drew it quickly. She fired a few successive shots, stopped the target, and had a look. Jake had a look next and was shocked that most were very near the center.

"Want to give it a try?" Rose suggested. "Couldn't hurt, right?"

Jake nodded. Rose let him try all three challenges again with that new technique. He was excited to see he was still doing well and when he finished the third challenge, he whooped and cheered.

"Congratulations," said Rose. "Looks like you get to play protector."

"This was awesome. Seriously," he beamed. "And you are freaking amazing. How long have you been shooting?"

"A while. Not regularly, but a while."

"A while like… a couple years? Three years?"

"Longer."

"Four years? Five years?"

"Doesn't matter," she said dismissively.

"No, but you thought it was crazy that I started shooting so young. You can't be much older than I am. If you _are_ even older than I am. How old are you?"

"Older than I look," she chuckled.

"Early twenties then?"

"Perhaps."

"Late twenties?" he said skeptically.

"Could be."

"Well, you're not in your thirties."

"You never know," she teased.

He laughed. "You're secretive about everything, aren't you?"

"One of the mysteries of the universe," she agreed.

"Seriously, you are the most amazing girl I've ever met."

Rose blushed and Jake ran off to fetch the target for her. When he returned, Rose was leaning up against the TARDIS with a gun under each arm.

"I wasn't just saying that," Jake told her. Before she realized what was happening, Jake had quickly stepped forward and pressed his lips against hers. Rose was shocked and wasn't sure what to do. She was trapped against the TARDIS without much way of escape. She kissed him back for just a second. She wasn't sure why except that it felt cruel to not respond at all.

When he pulled back, she apologized immediately. "I'm sorry, but I can't-"

"I know. You and the Doctor," said Jake. "It's not hard to tell, especially because I saw you kiss him."

"So then why did you-"

"Because you're hot," he answered with a smirk. "Sexy, strong, and confident. I don't know if I'll ever find that again, so I had to steal a taste while I had the chance."

"Yeah, but if the Doctor finds out about that chance you stole, you might have to find a different ride home," she teased.

"Nah, because I already know I'm you favorite. You wouldn't leave me here."

"Now who's looking so confident?"

"Sexy and strong, too," he boasted.

"Find someone your own age, love," Rose said as she patted his arm.

"I don't mind an age gap." He handed over the target so she could take it inside.

Rose entered the TARDIS, shaking her head. It was one hell of an age gap.

When Rose came back out, Jake was waiting for her. He expected to receive his handgun, but Rose said he only got it when they had to split up with two separate groups. She tucked it into the back waist of her jeans for safe keeping until then.

"So, I just want to make sure…" Jake started. "Well, I didn't really mean… No, I did mean what I said about you, but I wasn't really… you know. I-"

"All in good humor. Nothing weird between us," she assured him.

"So I'm still your favorite?" he ribbed.

"Favorite flunky?" she asked with a grin. "Sure."

"Flunky?" he acted offended at first, but then became flirty. "I'll be your flunky any day. I mean, your wish is my command."

"I command you to straighten up and stop flirting."

"I'm sorry, did you say straighten up or stiffen up?" he said suggestively. "I guess it could mean the same thing."

Rose groaned.

"Yeah, I'd like to hear more of-"

"Jake, I'm going to hurt you if you don't stop," she threatened.

"I didn't know you were into that sort th-"

"Jake!"

"All in good humor, right?" Jake couldn't stop laughing the rest of the way back to school.

As soon as they were back at the school, the day's work began. Rose enlisted four more people to carry the morning water and then brought the protein bars. Fifteen very reluctant people were threatened until they agreed to go gather vegetables. The three that tried breaking into the TARDIS were among them. Jake and Troy offered to assist again. Rose allowed Jake to carry his handgun as an extra precaution. All were relieved when the bucket was filled and they were able to leave the dense part of the forest unscathed.

It was nearing eleven o'clock when they returned and Rose immediately called everyone to gather out in front of the school. There, she announced their afternoon plans.

"Bath time!" she said loud enough for everyone to hear. "You're all in desperate need of a wash. I have a way to block off a part of the lake. There will be no fish or other water creatures and I can clean it of all bacteria. I have plenty of soap and towels. You're going to wash your clothes, too, and I have a way to instantly dry them so you won't be walking around naked or wet.

"I want to make sure this is clear: Bath time is not optional. Bath Time is mandatory. Hygiene isn't just about appearance or even that nice clean feeling. Your health is at risk in the state that you're in. Some of you might already be dealing with infections of one kind or another. If you are, please talk to me so we can fix you up. The roster will be checked to make sure you go and anyone that refuses will not get dinner tonight.

"This will be group bathing so I'm sure you'll feel more comfortable if we split up by gender. I'm going to retrieve a few things and when I come back, I want everyone split into groups of twenty. Exactly twenty. Girl groups will make one line and boy groups will make another. I'll be back soon, so be ready."

Jake and Troy, knowing she'd need assistance, gathered up the adventurers to help her out. Rose gathered twenty bath towels and handed them out by fives to her volunteers. One got a box of shampoo bottles, Jake got a box filled with bars of soap, and Troy got a black stick that looked to him like a plastic sword. Rose came out last with a shiny globe about the size of a football.

"You know this is going to take all day, don't you?" asked Troy.

"Yeah. It could take as long as six hours, I figure, but that's if each group takes half an hour. I'm sure we could be done faster than that," Rose stated.

"Don't forget the walking though," one of the adventurers reminded. "Ten minute walk there and ten minute walk back. That's an extra twenty minutes per group."

"I've thought about that, too. Group one goes and it takes them ten minutes to get there. Group two starts walking down twenty minutes after group one leaves. That gives group one twenty minutes to bathe before group two shows up."

"How are we walking them down? Escorts?" asked Troy.

"You've never found any trouble on your way, have you?" asked Rose.

"No, it's a pretty clear shot to the lake," Jake answered. "There are these really creepy elephant-like things that hang around the lake, but they're not too close and never even look at us. There are other animals that go there to drink and a few small birds, but nothing dangerous."

"Okay," Rose said as she thought it through. "Jake and I are both armed. I think I should stay by the lake to both oversee and protect and Jake should stay somewhere between the school and the lake to protect those walking to and from. If a few others would volunteer to escort, I'd really appreciate it."

Rose was really pleased when all of them volunteered, but then noticed that Jake looked a bit sulky.

"What's wrong?"

"I get to stand by myself for six hours doing absolutely nothing," he grumbled.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "It's just-"

"It's something that needs to be done," he agreed. "It's what I signed up for."

"I'll make it up to you. I'm not sure how, but I'll make it up to you."

Jake's mischievous smile was back. "I have a few ideas."

Rose rolled her eyes.

When they returned to the school, it appeared that everyone had followed directions. Rose wasted no time. Three adventurers handed their stacks of towels to some girls in group one and Rose, with the some of the adventurers, led the group down to the lake.

The area that the adventurers had been taking water from was a large clearing with tall bulrushes on both sides that made them feel hidden and protected. It was just the right size for their purpose. Rose walked down to the water's edge with the globe and placed it in the water, just against the point where the water touched the edge. She pressed a few buttons on the top and a pulse pushed outward through the water. It wasn't exactly a pulse though. I was a net-like force field that pushed all animal life out of the area while allowing the water to stay in place. Once the net field was set at the distance she desired, she sealed the field so that no water could flow through anymore. She then took a few bottles out of her pockets, measured out a few drops, and dumped them into the enclosed swimming area. She tested the water with a little dipstick and when she was satisfied that it was safe and clean, she instructed the girls to undress, put their clothes along the edge, and get in. She handed each a bar of soap and threatened that if they dropped it, they'd go diving for it. She also had eleven bottle of shampoo to share that they had to use sparingly.

She hadn't known exactly how deep the water was and was pleased to see that it was about the perfect depth, just about their waist level. The girls were all very hesitant to get in so Rose tried to hurry them along. Five minute increments - They had only five minutes to wash themselves, five minutes to wash their clothes with the bar soap, five minutes to dry their clothes, and five minutes to dress. They still weren't going quite fast enough so she reminded them that a boy group would be arriving in just a few short minutes.

Each girl was handed a towel when they got out. Two adventurers took their clothes. One of them held up the clothes one piece at a time while the other adventurer waved the black plastic wand over the front and back of the garment and it was miraculously dry.

Nearly half the girls still weren't dressed when the boy group arrived. Rose told the groups not to look at each other and concentrate on what they were doing. The boys seemed rather uncomfortable to overseen by Rose, especially Donovan and the principal, but she insisted that they not be bashful; that she wasn't there for a peep show. In all of her travels, she'd seen thousands of naked men, most of them being different species. She was completely unperturbed and uninterested. Her only desire was that they move quickly.

The hours passed slowly and it took effort for Rose not to be irritable with the later groups. They did nothing different than the other groups; she was just drained and bored of repeating the same instructions and continually pushing them to hustle through the process.

Rose was startled when Jake came up behind her. He was offering her his gun and she looked at him quizzically.

He laughed when he saw her confusion. "You lost count, didn't you? That's all the groups except me and the other helpers and escorts. Finally, bath time."

"And don't you dare rush us," said Troy as he began undressing. "I think we deserve a bit of extra time."

Rose looked around for the one girl in the adventurers group and realized that she had gone with the last group of girls. She really hadn't been paying attention. The last two groups were smaller than the rest. They were finished. Well, nearly finished. This was the last group.

Jake winked at her as he passed, turned around when he was at the water's edge, spread his arms wide, and fell backward into the lake. Unlike all the apprehensive groups before them, this group was taking great pleasure from the opportunity. To them, it was a treat.

"How's the water?" she asked with a big smile.

"Why don't you find out?" one of them asked with a smirk.

"Oh, not you, too." She chuckled and shook her head.

"We can't help it," said Jake. "But I think I should remind you of the rules. Bathing is mandatory. Remember?"

"Yes, but I already had a shower this morning."

"Ah yes, in your mansion," said the first boy. "Although, you prefer to call it a lab. A lab with showers and beds and a kitchen. What else have you got in there?"

"Oh, you know, a swimming pool, tennis courts, a zoo…" Rose laughed. She knew they wouldn't believe her so she had no problems sharing.

"But not a lake full of handsome naked men," another boy pointed out. "Better hop in before the opportunity passes you by."

"As tempting as that might be," she replied sarcastically, "I doubt my husband would approve."

"Husband?" asked Troy. "You mean you're _married_? You and the Doctor?"

"Hello!"

Rose spun around at the sound of the Doctor's voice.

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Last group," Rose informed him. "How's _your_ project coming along? I'm surprised to see you."

"Good surprise?"

"Of course," she agreed. She sort of turned them so her back was to the boys. It felt more private. "I miss you. I didn't think I'd see you until dinner. Definitely good surprise."

"That's just the thing though, it is dinnertime," he said. "I helped get the water for the school and they're finishing up the cooking now."

"What time is it?" she asked.

"6:30."

"Seriously?" she said in surprise. "We tried for twenty minutes each group. It shouldn't be later than 5:00."

"Sorry, but it looks like your estimation might have been a bit off."

"Apparently," she replied.

"So, ready for dinner?" he asked as he placed his hands at her waist.

"Definitely," she answered. She then turned to the group of bathing boys. "Everyone out!"

"What?" one of them cried in disbelief. "I thought we weren't going to be rushed."

"That was before I found out that it's 6:30 and dinner's already being served."

"Apologies," one of them taunted, "we wouldn't want you to be late for your candle-lit dinner date."

"You want candles tonight?" asked the Doctor.

"No, they're just teasing us. They're jealous," she accused them.

"Because we have candles?" the Doctor asked in confusion. "I guess if they want candles-"

"Not candles, love. Don't worry about it. Now… everyone out." Rose went down to the water and reached for the shiny sphere. Those that were reluctant to get out, suddenly rushed for the shore. The second she turned off the force field, the regular lake water and all of the animals would flood that area again. She waited until the last foot left the water and switched it off.

Each of the boys dried their clothes, dressed, and helped to carry everything back to the TARDIS. Rose waved to them before she went inside with the Doctor.

"Tired?" he asked.

"It wasn't quite as labor intensive, but still taxing. Thank you for taking care of the evening water."

Rose stroked his cheek and gave him a kiss. She was about to head to the kitchen, but the Doctor held her in place. He looked upset.

"Something isn't right," he claimed. He leaned in and licked her bottom lip. Rose quickly pulled back, looking at him like he'd gone mad.

"You taste like human!" he accused.

"I am human," she reminded him.

"No, you taste like a different human. Someone kissed you!"

Rose tried her best not to laugh. "Perhaps."

"What do you mean perhaps?" he asked irritably. "Who was it?"

"Just an admirer."

"Did you punch him? Tell me you punched him."

"Did you punch Madame de Pompadour?" she asked in return. "Because I remember being pretty upset when she kissed you. No, if I remember correctly, you came back grinning and boasting that you had the honor of snogging her."

"You snogged him?!" the Doctor demanded.

"I think you completely missed my point there. But no, of course I didn't snog him. I told him I was taken."

"I want to know who it was," he insisted.

"Just one of the randy boys that wanted me to get naked and bathe with them," she teased.

"One of?!"

"Apparently they like commanding women. They think it's sexy."

"No. Not okay. I'm the only one allowed to think that. They-"

"Relax, love. You know, and they know, I've only got eyes for you." She stroked his cheek, but he blocked her before she could kiss him again.

"Go wash your mouth first. I don't want to taste randy teenage boy on you."


	8. Chapter 8

Rose awoke the next morning and went about her usual morning routine. When she was done eating breakfast, she wasn't really sure what she should do next. The morning before, she took Jake for shooting practice before the school had breakfast. The morning before that, the Doctor had taken her into the forest to discover edible plants. This morning, she still had at least an hour until she needed to be at the school.

She decided that her next stop should be the workshop to see the Doctor. She brought him breakfast like she had the morning before.

"Good morning," she greeted.

"Is it really morning already?" he asked in surprise. "Yes, I suppose it is."

"Oh, my love, you need a break," she said seriously. "Two days and two nights straight. It's incredible what you're doing for them, but you need to rest. Even if you don't want to sleep, you need a break."

"I've had breaks," he stated. "I shower at some point every day. I eat dinner with you every evening. I helped out with school dinner last night. And the night before, you and I… well, you remember."

"I'm still worried about you though. Why don't you take a little break right now?"

"Not a chance. It's really coming along and there's no way I'm stopping now."

"How close is it to being done?" she inquired.

"Well, have a look." The Doctor put down his tools and stepped back to proudly display his work.

The device was much bigger than it had been when she last saw it, but if she remembered correctly, his was still quite a bit smaller than the original. She didn't have anything to compare it to though because where the original 'time bomb' had been, there were just thousands of tiny scattered parts.

"Sorry, but you do realize I have no idea what I'm looking at, right?" she said apologetically.

"A nearly finished time bomb-like time device," he declared.

"How nearly finished? Do you have an estimation of when it might be ready?" she asked hopefully.

"I should be able to finish building by noon to sometime early afternoon. Then comes the tweaking, calculations, and calibration. My guess is that they should be going home sometime this evening or tomorrow morning."

Rose squealed with excitement. "You are brilliant. Absolutely amazing."

"I like to think so," he agreed.

"Have you found any clues about where this 'time bomb' might have come from?"

"Yes, I have. It's from Earth or one of its colonies. One of the parts had numerals on it. Western Arabic numerals," he explained.

"Which are used all around the world and become known as Earth numerals… So it could be from about any time or any place in the Earth Empire. What about the Time Agency? They use Venusian crystals in their devices. Did you find any in the 'time bomb'?"

"No, but that doesn't rule them out. This is very primitive. It could be a personal experiment, which there have been a few of, but it could also be one of the Time Agency's earliest attempts. They wouldn't have thought to use Venusian crystals until they realized they needed something like that to stabilize their devices."

"What do we do if we can't figure it out?"

"I don't even know what to do if we do figure it out. It was obviously a mistake. I know of most, if not all, groups that time travel successfully. Everyone has failed attempts at first. They either succeed and the mistakes stop or they give up and the mistakes stop. I say give up, but usually personal experiments stop because people die in the attempt. Either way, the mistakes stop. So what do we do?"

"I guess we'll just have to figure out the situation and go from there," Rose answered. "I'm going to start getting water ready for the school. I know you want to keep working and I want that, too, but take a few minutes to eat your breakfast first, alright?"

The Doctor agreed and Rose went to fill the water jugs. Instead of filling them up and handing them out one at a time to waiting assistants. She filled all four and put them outside the TARDIS. She went back in one last time to grab the protein bars and headed for the school.

"Morning, Boss Lady," Troy greeted.

He and Jake had come up behind her and she jumped when he spoke.

"Boss Lady?" she asked.

"Sorry, _Mrs._ Boss Lady," Troy corrected.

"Is the 'Mrs.' part supposed to tease me?" she said with a smile. "I quite like being married. It's _you_ that find it amusing."

"It's the whole 'ball and chain' thing," Troy explained. "That's supposed to be when you're older and stuff."

"And heroic Rose with a ball and chain? Doesn't seem right," Jake added.

Rose shook her head. "It's not a ball and chain. Life is an adventure and, in my opinion, an adventure is always better with two. The Doctor and I made the commitment to live that adventure together."

"If you're married, why do you always call him 'the Doctor'? I mean, it's not just when you refer to him; you call him 'Doctor' when talking to him," Troy commented. "Why do you have a name and he has a title?"

"'The Doctor' isn't just a title; it's his name," Rose explained.

"That's what Rachel was saying," said Jake. "No first name. No last name. Just 'the Doctor'."

"Yep," Rose affirmed.

"That's crazy though," Troy remarked. "How do you get bank accounts and contracts and passports?"

"We don't have any of those. No bank accounts, contracts, or passports. Our mode of transportation is our home and takes us wherever and whenever we want. We don't have a 'home point' that we return to. We're not part of society so we're not restricted by their rules."

"You don't have a home?" asked Jake. "What about family and stuff?"

"I just told you that the lab is our home. And neither of us have family. It's just the two of us."

"You guys had to have had homes and names at some point though. You said you were born in the 20th century like us," Jake reminded her.

"I was born in that time period, London, but I haven't been there in a long time. I had a mum, but she died a long time ago. I've put my past behind me. The Doctor's past is buried even deeper. It's just the Doctor and Rose in the magic blue box."

"Tell us though. Come on. You had to have a last name," Troy probed.

Rose smiled and shook her head. "Tyler. Rose Tyler."

"I'm _so_ gonna Google you," said Troy. "Just to let you know."

"Which is why I don't usually hand out my last name to people in your time period. I'll tell you what you'll find though – missing person reports. Rose Tyler disappeared."

"To become Mrs. Doctor," Jake teased.

"That wasn't actually my motivation, but if that's how you want to think about it…" She shrugged.

They entered the school together and four people were assigned to fetch the water. Rose stood back as everyone grabbed a protein bar. She was deep in thought when Jake and Troy returned to her side.

"Got a plan for the day?" asked Jake.

"I'm thinking it over. I'm really not sure what we should do. Gathering is a good idea, but…" Rose trailed off as she continued thinking.

"But what?" asked Troy.

"I'm afraid of Jake's response, but I was considering the two of us going hunting."

"Seriously?!" Jake was just as thrilled as she'd imagined.

"_Considering_. I'm really not sure. I really don't know what to do…"

Troy was about to speak, but Rose stepped away. Everyone had a protein bar and the water had been brought in. Rose stood in front of them and called for their attention.

"Okay, Glen Henry High School, time to listen. I have an announcement. I guess it's more like a progress report. The Doctor has worked two days and two nights, almost non-stop, on a time device that will send you home. The progress report is this: Either tonight or tomorrow morning, you're going home."

Rose had to pause because of all the cheering.

"That doesn't mean the work is done. We still don't know when exactly you'll be able to leave so we need to plan like we're still having dinner here. We have to think about breakfast tomorrow, too, because we're all out of protein bars. You may not want to bother because you're going home soon, but if we're here for another 24 hours or more, you're going to be hungry. As soon as breakfast is through, I'm calling names for a plant harvesting party. Anyway, there's the announcement. Hang in there. You're going home soon."

Rose returned to Jake and Troy and both the boys were positively beaming.

"Oh, I could kiss you," said Troy. "I can't believe it's actually going to happen! We're going home!"

"If you're kissing anyone out of appreciation, it should be the Doctor. I'm not exaggerating when I say he's working day and night. He hasn't slept since we got here. He never comes out of the workshop. It's really nice to know that you appreciate me, but he's your salvation."

"I wish we could repay you," Troy said seriously.

"Me, too," Jake agreed. "Really, if you can think of anything you need, anything we can do or give you, just name it."

"Edible plants for dinner," Rose answered. "You definitely don't have to, but if you want to help, that'd be great."

"We meant something for you and the Doctor, not something for the school," Troy clarified.

"I know. Thanks, but we're really alright. Just… once you get home, don't forget this. Appreciate all the little things at home and don't forget what you've discovered about yourself here. You're strong, independent leaders. When almost everyone had given up and hidden away, you stepped up and did what needed to be done. If you can do that in this environment, think about what you could do in your own time period. I'm not making any suggestions on what you should do with your life. Just, in whatever you decide to do, remember how special you are. You are brave and indomitable. If life starts getting tough, don't forget that."

The boys didn't seem to know what to say.

"So, veggie gathering… you in again or do you want to have a rest day?" she asked.

"I'll grab the mop bucket," said Troy.

"I've got the sample bucket," Jake added.

They were good boys.

When the group finished gathering and returned to school, Rose spotted the Doctor kneeling in front of the front doors with the time device in front of him.

"It's finished? You're calibrating?" she asked excitedly.

"Yep," he affirmed. "It's still going to take awhile, but today might be the day."

"Take a guess for me. Dinner or no dinner?" she asked.

"Really not sure, but you won't need tomorrow's breakfast. If I can't get it this evening, I'll most definitely have it before they wake up."

"Fantastic. I won't worry about hunting then." Rose sighed in relief.

"Hunting?" the Doctor asked incredulously.

"Well, it wouldn't be for sport. If they needed dinner and breakfast, I would need more food. Veggies are great, but they take more time and effort and they only go so far," she explained.

"Understood, but you don't need to worry about that. Might not have to worry about dinner either. Still questionable."

"Looks like I've got some free time then. Anything I can do to help?" she asked.

As soon as she made her offer, Rose's free time vanished. It was press this, hold that, scan this, help me carry, and please get something from the TARDIS. Rose was working as hard as she ever did, but so was the Doctor. Many people had gathered around just to watch. Jake and Troy were among them and each time Rose went back to the TARDIS, they followed to see if they could help. She told them they didn't need to, but they still did.

"That's alright. We're bored and just getting exercise," Troy told her.

"What kind of flunky would I be if I wasn't at your beck and call?" Jake had teased.

"You're flunkies when I need help, but right now, you're like puppy dogs following me around," she ribbed.

"At least we're cute puppy dogs?" said Troy.

They worked for hours and when the Doctor felt he was getting close, he asked Rose to go run a few tests for him. He was going to turn the device on and it was her job to use the TARDIS to measure its readings. Rose stepped up to the monitor and immediately saw what she was looking for. There was a red flashing dot in the corner of the screen that warned her of time manipulation outside of the TARDIS. The device wasn't activated, but it was still accessing time energy. Those were the levels the Doctor was interested in.

Rose highlighted the red dot on the monitor and expanded it to show her a viewing of it. It wasn't a camera view, but like an embossed image that was zoomed in to focus on the device. There was a faint outline of the Doctor in front of it, but she could still see the details of the device. She pulled up a few more screens and then typed in the command to take the readings.

Rose used the TARDIS's loud speaker to call out. "Okay, Doctor. You can turn it off."

It would only take her a few minutes to finish up in the TARDIS and a few minutes more to walk back, but she wasn't sure what kind of power the device was running on and wanted to conserve all she could.

Rose plugged a tablet computer into the console to transfer the data and when it was finished, she took a second to page through just to make sure she had remembered all the tests that the Doctor requested. She was just about to leave when she noticed another red dot on the monitor. Two red dots.

She opened the embossed visual and instantly knew what she was looking at. The embossed image focused on two wrist straps. They almost looked to be floating, but she saw the vague outline of the two people wearing them. Two humans with vortex manipulators.

Rose immediately opened the louder speaker and cried with urgency, 'Doctor! Time Agency!"

She took her hand off the button and searched quickly for another. She adjusted one dial for distance, typed in a code, and hit the second button. She felt a soft vibration through the TARDIS which confirmed that her command was executed, but would it work?

Rose had acted as fast as she could and then began running as fast as she could. She flew out of the TARDIS doors and raced toward the time agents' location. She saw the Doctor running toward the TARDIS, but when he spotted the direction she was taking, he changed course so that they would meet up. Running side by side, the found the time agents. The man stared at them in confusion, but the woman was too busy looking over the large weapon in her hands to notice them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" the Doctor demanded.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the man. The woman had finally looked up when the Doctor had spoken and was startled.

"I asked first," said the Doctor. "Though I already have a pretty good idea of what you're up to. Give me the weapon."

"Who are you?" the woman asked.

"I'm the person that came to save these people and I'm not about to let you blow them to bits. Give me the weapon," the Doctor ordered.

"What do you mean 'to save them'?" asked the woman.

"They're all alive and well and going home in just a couple hours," said Rose. "There's no way we're letting you screw that up."

"Who are they?" asked Troy.

Rose and the Doctor turned around to find Jake and Troy. Rose hadn't even thought of her 'puppy dogs' following.

"They're from the Time Agency," said Rose. "That time bomb must have been theirs. They're here to cover up that mistake."

"How do you know about the Time Agency?" the man demanded.

"Hand over the weapon and we might tell you," the Doctor answered.

"Might as well," said Rose. "It's not working anyway, right?"

"Did you do this?" the woman asked heatedly.

"Yes," Rose declared. "It's like he said, there's no way we're going to let you blow them to bits. We've worked damn hard to fix your mistake. We're not going to let you burn it all. Your weapon doesn't work anyway, so just hand it over."

"We've got a job to do," the man insisted.

"So do I!" said the Doctor. "I'm sending them back. There are 263 living people over there. It was your mistake not theirs! You can't murder 263 people to cover your own arses!"

"They want to kill us?" Jake's voice quivered and he looked over his shoulder toward the distant school. Rose turned to the two boys and motioned for them to be quiet.

"What do you mean 'sending them back'?" asked the man.

"Home! Where else? We both agree that they don't belong here. I intend to put the school and everyone in it back on Glen Henry High School property in 2012," the Doctor explained.

"You have those capabilities?" the woman inquired.

"I have far more advanced capabilities than that. Far more advanced than the Time Agency will ever see. Your most advanced technology never gets better than those silly little space hoppers you've got." The Doctor gestured toward their vortex manipulators.

Rose really wished the Doctor hadn't insulted them. It was only going to make it harder to reason with them.

"I bet those manipulators aren't working now either, are they?" the Doctor added.

Both agents flipped open their wrist straps then looked furiously up at the Doctor.

"What the hell did you do?!" the man roared.

"Sorry, that was me again," Rose confessed. "Kind of scary being stuck here with no way to get back home, huh? If you hand over that weapon, we might be able to work something out."

"Fix them," the woman commanded.

"Not until you hand over the weapon. Hand it over, we do our work, and everyone goes home," said Rose.

"They can't be allowed to go back. There will be evidence and personal testimonies. The Time Agency-"

"I know all about the Time Agency," the Doctor interrupted. "'The Agents' purpose is to change without interfering, to leave an effect with no evidence of cause. To be untraceable, undetectable, invisible. To all intents and purposes, the Agents do not exist.' And that's why you're here. One of the Agency's failed attempts tore the school away from its time. Now you want to leave no evidence. You want to disintegrate the building and everyone here so that no archaeologists dig up a school and modern humans right beside a mastodon. It's disgusting! Your mistake and you want to take it out on innocent people."

"They were supposed to be dead already," the man replied.

"Yeah, that's why you waited so long to show up. You wanted to wait until they all died of dehydration or starvation," Rose accused. "Does that make it easier on you? Give them time and let them suffer and die slowly so you don't feel as much guilt as you would if they were still alive when you got here? Well, they're alive and we're keeping them that way. Now hand over the damn weapon."

"It's our responsibility to-"

"To hell with your responsibility. Mine is more important," the Doctor claimed. "Now if you don't want to be stuck here yourselves, you'll hand over the weapon."

The agents looked at each other uncertainly. Both were considering their options and looked uncomfortable at how very few options were available.

"Might as well. The weapon doesn't work now," said Rose. "You've failed your mission already and on top of that, you've been discovered. The question now is: do you want to be stuck in the Pliocene or do you want him to fix your vortex manipulators?"

The agents still looked undecided so the Doctor took the chance and slowly extended his arms to beckon for the bazooka-sized weapon. The woman huffed and shoved it into his arms.

Rose took it from the Doctor and held it steady while he used his sonic screwdriver to take pieces apart. Once he finished with the gun, he took out the bomb that was housed inside and dismantled that, too.

"Alright, thank you for your cooperation," said the Doctor. "Vortex manipulators?"

They were still skeptical, but slowly, the man extended his arm so the Doctor could have a look. The sonic screwdriver whirred and the screen flashed on. The man looked relieved and when the woman saw that his was working, she quickly offered hers up to the Doctor.

The moment the Doctor stepped back, Rose let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god. That was really cutting it close."

She started laughing, not out of humor or joy, but from the sudden release of fear and anxiety.

"We were really cutting it close on both ends, weren't we?" the Doctor laughed with her. "Very fast thinking. Well done."

"If I was just a second later…" Rose shook her head, not wanting to think about it. "And then this end. What's your time sense say?"

"Two minutes left," the Doctor answered.

Rose laughed even harder.

"Two minutes 'til what?" asked Jake.

"Until the weapon and their vortex manipulators came back to life on their own," the Doctor stated.

"What?!" the male fumed. He rushed forward and grab the Doctor by the collar. "That was a game! That was a stupid, fu-"

"Game's still on," said Rose, "so you better put him down. He got to play with your wrist straps, remember? Now you're really not going anywhere until he lets you. They're still functional, but you can't travel without access codes. He's the only one who has them."

The man looked ready to snap and Rose was starting to worry.

"How about this game? I'll beat the codes out of him," the man threatened.

Jake and Troy stepped forward, one on each side of the Doctor. They said nothing, but the message was clear.

"Violence. Always violence," the Doctor muttered. The man made no move to hit him, but also no move to release him. The Doctor started peeling the man's fingers off his shirt. "I'll thank you to let me go. Yes, thank you. Very good."

Once free, the Doctor spun around to have a look at everyone. "Good. Right then. Everyone back to the school. Oh, and Rose, I'm sorry, love, but do you think you could still grab those readings?"

"Of course." Rose pulled him forward to give him a quick kiss and then separated from the group to go to the TARDIS. This time, Jake and Troy didn't follow her. They stayed to guard the Doctor.


End file.
